Square Enix City Adventures on Christmas Day
by NX WORLDS
Summary: Join the cast of the Final Fantasy series, and Kingdom Hearts as they celebrate Christmas in their own New York style city. A three-part holiday special for all fans.
1. Part 1 of 3

**Disclaimer: All the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series belong to Square-Enix. The characters** **Lann, Reynn, Tama, and** ** **Aya Brea** belong to Square Enix also, and the original character, Johnny Thunder, belongs to me and appears in **_**Kingdom Hearts III Online HD.**_

 **-** _SquareEnix City_ **-  
Adventures on Christmas Day**

 **-** _Part 1 of 3_ **-**

xXx

We're now at Square Enix City and the Christmas season is upon us.

The SquareEnix cast of characters was finishing up decorating the halls and the many rooms of their large glass-made 14-stories high skyscraper they called home. That skyscraper was smack dab in the middle of SquareCity and was only known as Edenhall. It was the only place where these SE colorful characters could hang out, laugh, cry, and share tender moments together.

They were now at the Edenhall Main Quad, finishing up decorations with a large Christmas tree.

"Ahh... I just love the holidays..." said Serah Farron with a sigh, "Hanging out with family and friends, sharing presents and warm snacks, decorating the tree..."

"...shutting up so that people can concentrate." her sister Lightning mumbled, flipping through her military magazine.

"Lightning." Ventus, also known as Ven, sighed, "Would it kill you to be in the Christmas mood and help us out for once?"

"Yeah, girl!" Snow said with a grin, "And besides, it's your turn to put the Christmas Star on top of the tree this year." he playfully waved the Star toward Lightning. Lightning shot Snow a dark look, like a starving predator about to jump on its prey. Tidus snatched the star from Snow's hand, "HEY!"

"I don't think Light is in a good mood... or ANY kind of mood to put the Star where it belongs." Tidus remarked nervously.

Ventus noticed the flat screen HDTV displaying the building's front lobby, "Hey. Mailman's here." he said.

"I'll get it." Tidus screamed. He saw Chocobo who was sleeping peacefully on the couch and jumped onto its back, jerking it up from its sleep.

"It's Blitzball Champ Tidus, ready to tackle on Edenhall's front door with his trusty ride Chocobo on what could become the ultimate future Chocobo Racing in the world! Ondalay, Chocobo! ONDALAY!" Tidus screamed and slapped Chocobo like a horse.

"SKReEEEEWW!" Chocobo screamed and took off from the Main Quad like a mad horse with rabies. Tidus and Chocobo dashed down the stairs, crossed past a grand hall, wavered through dozens of hallways, leapt over balconies, crashed through secret passages… both Tidus and Chocobo were screaming: screams of joy and agony. Finally they reached the front lobby where the front glass double doors were. There was a mailman Moogle coming toward the doors. The receptionist saw him and just as he was about to waver to him to enter, Tidus and Chocobo shoved him out of the way and crashed through the double doors. Chocobo collapsed, exhausted and out of breath. So did Tidus…

"Kupo-po! What the pom-pom was that?" the Moogle asked.

"Just… wheeeeeze… tell us what we got…" Tidus gasped, his chest heaving up and down.

"You got packages!"

"Cool…" Tidus said with a big grin, before his eyes rolled up like slots machine and he fainted. Sazh Katzroy came into the lobby and saw Tidus and the Chocobo then saw the Moogle Mailman, "…what's the delivery, dead teenager and a Chocobo?"

"Kupo, just sign here." The Moogle handed Sazh a paper clipboard and a pen, "and here, here, there, there, initial here, initial there, print here, there, here-there, print there, sign here, and... Stamp with a Kupo!"

Sazh dropped the pen after signing the clipboard eternally to rub his fingers, "Dang, that package better be good, cuz I might lose my fingers from all that writin'!"

"Bring them in!" the Moogle shouted. A truck backed up to the front door, opened its rear doors and dumped about a hundred of wrapped gifts on Sazh, Tidus and Chocobo. Snow and Serah who were coming to the front lobby saw the infinite gifts pouring down on the characters.

"Whoa! Somebody's been good this year." Snow remarked.

"Yeah, Kupo! And it ain't you." the Moogle mailman replied, "It's some girl named…" he enunciated the name on the invoice, "Lightning Farron?"

"What?" Snow and Serah yelled.

Sazh pulled out of the gifts and screamed, "What?"

Tidus then followed, "WHAT?"

Chocobo then followed, "KWAAAT?"

"Somebody called me?" Lightning came to the scene.

"Your Santa gifts have arrived, Kupo!" The Moogle mailman replied.

"My what?"

"Have a good fete, Santa's pet! Teeheehee." the Moogle mailman took off, laughing. Lightning stared speechlessly at the gifts. Ven along with his lookalike friend Lann came down the lobby and saw the gifts, and they too were speechless.

"Wow…" Ven's eyes sparkled.

"Ohh DUDE! Look at all them _gifts_!" Lann laughed out loud, "Man! Has somebody's been Santa Claus's favorite child or something?"

All fingers pointed at Lightning. Lightning glared at Lann like a predator ready to jump on her prey.

"Oops..."

The main receptionist sniggered behind his post. But Lightning, having good ears, heard him and pointed the finger at him, threatening, "You laugh, you die!"

The receptionist got quiet.

xXx

Kingdom Lounge, a lounge in Edenhall where all Kingdom Hearts characters hang out. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Lea (previously called Axel), and their new friend Reynn and her Mirage companion Tama were watching a holiday movie when…

"EEEEAAAAAAAHHHH!"

"Sigh... Just when you think that you can enjoy your movie..." Riku mumbled.

Dark-haired girl Iris Amicitia crashed into the lounge with panic-stricken look on her face. Following her was Tifa Lockhart.

"Iris..." Tifa tried to talk to her friend, but Iris hushed her.

"This is important!" Iris said.

"This is dumb." Tifa sighed.

"You guys!" Iris yelped, completely ignoring Tifa, "My boyfriend Noctis is coming by for a visit tonight, and I've got NOTHING to wear!"

Kairi fake-gasped, "This is a fashion disaster!"

"I KNOW!" Iris yelled in response, "You gotta help me!"

"Iris, you'll be fine. You're like King Noctis and Queen Lunafreya's best friend! AND Gladio the King's Shield's _sister_!" Sora said, "You basically got all the perks of a rich girl."

"That's what I've been trying to tell her all day!" Tifa said, "Oh, and by the way, Noctis is NOT your boyfriend."

"Can't a girl dream?" Iris huffed.

"Anyway," she went on, "since it's all true that I got all the perks in the world, how about we go do some holiday shopping together? Just us girls! And any girls! It's girls-only shopping spree!"

Iris then faced Kairi and Reynn who all shook heads and responded with different excuses. The boys just said they're not girls.

"Awright fine! It's just Tifa!"

"Do I get a say in this?"

"After saying Noctis is not my boyfriend? No. Let's go!" Iris took off, dragging Tifa with her.

The KH gang returned to their movie when…

"Breaking! Breaking Exciting News!" the TV news reporter blared on the screen.

Tama groaned, "Why do we have to the-show the news NOW in the middle of a good movie? That's what the-10 o'clock... the-4 o'clock... the-6 o'clock news are for!"

"Oh come now, Tama. Maybe it's good news." Reynn said.

"No Reynn." Riku disagreed, "Breaking news is never good news."

"Are you ready for the holiday season?" shouted the announcer.

"Guess I was wrong." Riku said as everyone sat up with excitement.

"Well then if you are ready for the holiday season, you better get ready for our 13th Annual Winter Fantasy Skating-Style Competition! Bring your dancing partner to the ice field for a fantastic time on ice this weekend-only starting Thursday afternoon at Mt. Crystallis just in time for Christmas!"

Sora sighed and sank back to the couch, "Lame…"

"That sounds like fun!" Kairi said, all smiles.

"OH!" Sora sat up again, "I TOTALLY agree!"

"We'll be giving away _dozens_ of Christmas gifts—"

"Did you just say gifts?" Everyone exclaimed.

"That's right! Gifts!" The announcer guy said as if in response, "Dozens of them, to our famous couple competitors, courtesy of your favorite boutiques like B&W Outfitters, Migelo's Sundries, and Aerith's Flower Shop!"

The gang felt hypnotized when they saw the gifts displayed on TV. "Whoa... Seeing these feels like Christmas Day in Heaven..." Sora mumbled.

The announcer went on, "You can even get a lifetime supply of ASSORTED ICE CREAMS delivered to your home, fully paid for by Huey Duck's Ice Cream Shop at Disney Town!"

"ICE CREAM!" Lea gasped at the sight of the ice creams displayed on TV. The KH Gang couldn't get their eyes off the assorted ice cream also.

"Will you be getting Double Crunch On Monday?"

"Ohh..." everyone gasped.

"Spark Lemon Tuesday?"

"OhHhH..."

"Goofy Parfait on Wednesday?"

"OHHH..."

"WHO KNOWS? Just sign up for your chance to compete! And remember, have fun and happy holidays!"

"Aw, man! THIS IS AWESOME!" Sora exclaimed, "I gotta say, I wasn't down for it, but the gifts and ice cream won me over!"

"I know right?" Tama exclaimed before her face contorted with utter confusion, "Wait!"

"What?" Reynn asked.

Tama cocked her head on one side, "Who eats ice cream in the Winter?"

"Guys we should totally compete!" Kairi proposed.

Riku shook his head, "Yeah, no. Not me."

"Why not Riku?" Sora provoked, "Are you chicken?"

"Just so you know, Sora, I had my share of competition in the rink for the past two years. So that makes me more male than you are."

"No way Riku!" Kairi exclaimed, "You were in the competition too?"

"We both were!" Reynn revealed, "But Riku was the best! He actually taught me everything about skating: techniques and tactics!"

"We won the competition by landslides..." Riku explained, "Well, except the last one. That prize was totally stolen from us by the so-called Sky-Pirating Duo of Balthier and Fran. That Balthier guy is such a smug. And have you seen his partner on ice Fran?"

"Ha-Ha! Fran..." Lea laughed at the name, "What? She old?"

"No she's hot!" Riku said, "She ain't human but she like a model."

"Too bad you can't compete Riku." Sora said with a haughty grin on his face, "But don't worry! Kairi and I will totally—"

"Say, I have an idea." Reynn interrupted, "Why can't you two be the skating duo this year?" she pointed at Kairi and Riku.

"Wait, whoa, what?" Kairi gasped.

"What, wait, whoa?" Riku gasped.

Kairi tried to protest, "I don't think I—"

"Oh come on guys!" Reynn said with a smile, "It'll be totally fun!"

"It will be totally awesome!" Lea agreed, "Riku could compete once again as a champion, and Kairi being a princess and a fast-learner, can get all the fame!"

"Hey, I'M a fast-learner!" Sora barked, trying to get attention. "And I got a Keyblade!" But the group was too busy talking to each other.

Lann suddenly crashed through the lounge, catching their attention, "Hey guys, word of advice: next time you see Lightning, compliment her shoes. And you didn't see me OR heard from me."

xXx

Lea, Lann and Tama were in the kitchen. The kitchen was so large; it was like the type of kitchen you could find in restaurants.

"Guys, I am SO excited!" a cheerfully glee Lea said, "The thought of Riku and Kairi winning lifetime supplies of ice creams makes me wanna create my very own ice cream line! Heck, we could even serve our creation at the event!"

"Seriously, who eats the ice cream in the Winter?" Tama said, "I'm still so the-CONFUSED!"

"I think that's an awesome innovative idea." Lann replied, "Let's get to it!"

xXx

Edenhall Royal Archives Library. A magnificent library located at the mid section of Edenhall, was where Terra and Aqua were hanging out. That was before Johnny Thunder entered in.

"Whatchu readin', Terry?" Thunder said to Terra.

Terra put his book down, "It's Terra."

"Whatevs." Thunder jumped on a recliner and magically made a bag of popcorn appear to his hand.

"It's this book called 'The Grimoire" Terra explained, "I find its scripts and its lore fascinating."

"What's it about?" Aqua asked.

"I dunno."

Then Ven entered the library, alongside twins Mysidian mages Palom and Porom. "Man, you guys have no idea how excited I am about Christmas. What I'm most excited about is Santa Claus! He's coming by Christmas Eve to give us presents! You know. If we've been good."

"And I think we all know who's been NOT good." Aqua said and all eyes turned to Thunder.

Thunder shrugged, "What? I'VE been good!"

Porom shrugged, "…I dunno. I think Santa Claus is a myth."

"I agree." Palom nodded his head.

All heads turned to the twins by surprise. Ven quickly approached them, his pupils dilated, "I…I'm sorry, did you just say a myth?" his voice went low and shivering. "What do you guys mean he's a myth?"

"We mean he doesn't exist." Palom answered, "Hellooo…."

Ven shook his head, "Ohhh, no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no. You guys are kids. You suppose to believe in Santa Claus to get presents."

"Do you?" Porom asked.

"Of course I do!" Ven exclaimed, feeling offended.

"This oughta be good." Thunder made himself comfortable on his recliner chair, still eating popcorn.

"Think about it, Key boy." Porom marched toward the chalkboard and, waving her staff to it started magically drawing her logic down, "How possible is it, for an old man… so close to his time… to leave presents in every home in this world, of every land, and of every states, and of every nations of every continents, and every single world that exists in the Final Fantasy and beyond in just one night?"

"He has Magic." Ven argued.

"But magic is limited." Palom countered.

"TIME Magic." Ven argued back.

"Too much Time Magic can disturb the rifts of time and space." Porom argued back.

"Arcane?"

"Only manipulate the negative status."

"HE'S A GOD!"

"Gods are invisible." Porom said.

"Except to the chosen ones." Palom added.

"Which explain WHY he never shows up to us, cuz we gotta believe in Santa Claus cuz we're the Chosen!" Ven screamed, "HA!" He gasped, out of breath.

Everyone in the room looked confused.

"Chosen for what?" Parom exclaimed.

"He doesn't show up to us?" Thunder gloated, "Dude! We see him all the time in these thrift malls!"

"Shut up!" Ven barked at Thunder.

"What sad moment for our dear Ven." Terra commented before heading back to his book. Ven noticed the book and quickly snatched it from Terra's hands.

"HEY!" Terra barked.

"He could be using this book! The Grimoire!" Ven exclaimed, "Ooh! He could teleport! Or pass through keyholes!"

The twins simply shook their heads.

Ven angrily slammed the book on the ground and approached the kids, "AUGH! YOU KNOW WHAT, KIDS! YOU BELIEVE IN SANTA CLAUS OR ELSE—!"

"He's watching you." Porom added.

"You don't wanna be on his naughty list so close to Christmas, right?" Palom taunted.

Ven stopped. He giggled mirthlessly. "Okay. Ohh…kay."

Aqua whispered to Terra, "And I thought _you_ were the one with the Darkness within."

"I know. How embarrassing." Terra muttered.

"YOU KNOW WHAT?" Ven barked again, before he quickly restrained himself and cleared his throat. He pulled out a big fake grin, "You know what, kids. How about we do this. We'll fix ourselves some fresh milk and warm cookies. Chocolate chip. We'll leave them at the table…" he then looked at everyone in the room, "Nobody touches them."

He then faced Thunder, "And I do mean… nobody."

Thunder frowned.

Ven faced the twins again, "…and we'll wait."

The twins looked at each other then back at Ven, "Wait for what?"

"For Santa Claus of course!" Ven responded, "According to myths— REAL life stories— kids always leave a little treat for Santa before his usual visits. His favorite: milk and cookies. We'll wait around midnight until he shows up to eat the snacks, and then we'll see who's wrong about Santa. Deal?"

"Uhh… Ven." Aqua said, "You didn't make the bet."

"Allright fine." Ven sighed, "I'll bet…" Ven looked around his pockets and pulled out something valuable, "…my Wayfarer's Charm—"

Terra and Aqua looked up, eyes widen. "What?!" Aqua gasped.

"—that Santa Claus exists." Ven finished, "Deal?"

"All right." The twins responded on cue.

"And we'll bet…" Porom said.

"…our little Black Magic." Palom responded.

"…a little?" Porom frowned at her brother. Palom sighed, "…fine. I'll give up ALL my black magic."

"Deal!" Ven and the twins shook hands, and the twins left the library.

Terra and Aqua quickly approached Ven, still bug-eyed, "What madness did you do? I gave you that Charm!" Aqua angrily said to Ven.

"You're not ACTUALLY gonna go for that bet, are you?" Terra asked, panicky.

"Oh, trust me guys. I will. Now to make us some milk and cookies."

ZiNg!

Ven, Terra and Aqua turned around and saw a plateful of fresh batches of cookies and a vase of milk sitting at a table right next to Thunder.

"Y'know." Thunder spoke, now chopping on a cookie from the batch he just conjured up, "You guys should REALLY learn to do things the easy way instead of the old boring mortal way. It's so much fun."

Aqua gently took the half-bitten cookie from Thunder's hand and put it back on the plate. "Unh-Unh! No cookies for you pal." she said.

 _And so here's what we've learned on this season of hope:_

 _Lightning apparently has received surprise gifts from above… an infinite supply it seems._

 _Riku and Kairi are entering the Winter Fantasy of Mt. Crystallis, unaware of their jealous friend indeed._

 _And Ventus apparently wants the little Mysidian wizards to at least believe!_

 _Ah yes… this Christmas season was just getting started._

 **xXx**

Back at the Main Quad, Lightning's gifts were just too much that they took over most of the quad. Snow and Serah walked through the gifts, while avoiding destroying them. I mean, who knows what valuable things could be hiding under these gift-wrapped boxes?

"Lightning?" Serah called out to her sister, unable to locate her through this flood of boxes, "Are you in there?"

"Yoo-hoo, Lightning?" Snow teasingly called out, "This isn't the time to be playing hide-and-seek!"

Suddenly Lightning emerged out from the sea of gifts and grabbed Snow from behind in a chokehold. Serah gasped, "Lightning!"

"You laugh, you die." Lightning threatened Snow, choking him.

"Gassp… gasp…"

"Lightning! Stop! You're hurting him!" Serah pulled Lightning away from her boyfriend. Snow gasped from breath.

"This is the Christmas season, not the hunting season!" Serah exclaimed, "We should be happy. _You_ should be happy. Look at all the gifts you have!"

" _I_ should be happy?" Lightning snapped, "Do I LOOK happy to you?" Lightning pointed her serious bitter face to Serah to make a point.

"Apparently not."

"Face it, Serah…" Snow said, clearing his voice from the choking, "…your sister's been so used to being naughty all her life, that she ain't happy to switch side for once…"

Lightning jumped on Snow again who was laughing but Serah quickly stopped her sister, "Whoa hey!" She screamed, barring Lightning and Snow's paths, "BACK OFF, Lightning!" she then faced Snow too, "And you too Snow! This ain't funny!"

"Aw come on! No sense of humor?" Snow exclaimed, "You know, I bet that this whole gift delivery thing might be a prank. I mean, who on their right mind would wanna spent millions of Gil on gifts to give to a bitter woman like Lightning?"

"Snow boy got a point." Spoke the voice of Terra as he joined in the conversation, "The only person who could pull off such thing _wouldn't_ be sane… whether it's a prank or not."

All heads turned to face Snow, whose eyes narrowed, "Terra…" he said his name in vain, "Got someplace to go play in the darkness, dark boy?"

All heads turned to Terra. "I don't know." Terra responded, "Is your light a little too bright to face a little dark room in a pantry for a change? And by bright, I mean chicken."

All heads turned back to Snow. Snow cracked his neck, and then cracked his knuckles before pounding his fists together. Terra rotated his shoulders and stretched a little bit.

"Uh-oh. Looks like we're gonna have a prank war." Sazh announced.

"Well, not on my gifts they ain't!" Lightning yelled, "Cuz if I hear a single crack of broken box, I'll go Odin on all of you!"

Snow and Terra looked at Lightning, then back at each other, "Good point." Terra said. "Let's move this event down Edenhall Coliseum."

"Here's an idea." Snow added, "How about we do this all across SquareCity?"

"Oh it's on." Terra grinned, "You and me, SquareCity, for an all-out prank war. Oh. And bring your posse with you. Unless you're too… bright."

"Grr…"

"Oh! Here's an idea!" Serah quickly jumped of joy, "How about prank winner takes all of Lightning's gifts?"

Lightning glared back at Serah. Serah got reluctant all the sudden, "Or… maybe 30% of her gifts…?"

Lightning rolled her eyes, "Fine, whatever. Just make sure you don't break them." She turned to leave the room, but then stopped. She glanced at a small silver-wrapped box two feet from her and drooled a bit. She quickly grabbed it, glared back at everyone who was staring, and left without another word.

 **xXx**

Mt. Crystallis. A massive dormant volcano right behind SquareCity, which always looked beautiful when covered in snow during the wintertime. It was there that stood a fancy sky resort at the very top which looked just as luminous and populated as Nautilus the City of Dreams.

The resort was filled with an overwhelming crowd, all bundled up in coats and gloves in the chilly afternoon. Everything, decorations, competitors, even news crew were set for the Winter Fantasy Competition.

"Welcome to our 13th Annual Winter Fantasy Skating-Style Competition! I'm Ifrit! And this is ma' gurl Shiva!"

"Hello my beautiful ice sculptures." Shiva waved to the camera, before turning to Ifrit, "…um, are we supposed to talk to _that_ thing pointing at us?" she pointed at the camera, "What's it supposed to do?"

"I dunno. It looks like it's about to shoot some weird blast on us or something."

"I know… freaky right?"

"But people in this place call this thing a camry or something…?"

"It's called a camera, Kupo!" the cameraman, an annoyed yet lazy-looking Moogle with tired eyes, corrected them, "And yes it shooting at you. Only a pictured reflection of yourselves to thousand of TVs."

Shiva and Ifrit turned back at the cameraman, panic look on their faces.

"It's shooting at us?" Ifrit yelped.

"Yeah, but…" the cameraman's eyes suddenly went wide all of the sudden, then his voice raised to almost a high pitch sound, "No, don't… DON'T DESTROY IT WITH YOUR—!"

Ifrit shot a blast of fireball through the camera, exploding it from the Moogle's hands. Debris fell on the ground. Silence fell across the skating rink as all eyes stared at Ifrit.

"Oops…" Ifrit grinned.

Shiva quickly resumed hosting to the readers, "Uhh… I hope you are all excited about this year's Winter Fantasy! Cuz it's gonna be a blast!" she quickly whispered to Ifrit, "…just play along."

"Oh, um…" Ifrit nervously face the readers, "yeah! A real blast!"

"Oh! And make sure you look out for Terra and Snow of the Christmas Prank War special during the competition! You don't wanna get prank no?"

"I sure don't! Let the competition begin!"

The competition went underway: some couples performed the tango; others flipped each other up in the air like acrobats, and other did European dances, hip-hop, meringue, jazz, even some combo and creative freestyles. The crowd was amazed by some of the dances, but for some competitors it felt amateurish. One such competitive duo are Balthier and Fran.

"Would you look at this, Fran?" Balthier said to his partner, "It's as if they are practicing for 'Dancing with the Stars'. No talents like those as-if celebrities, wouldn't you agree?"

"Hmph. Like I care." Fran dismissively said, "We'll sweep this one again anyway like a scoop full of Gil."

Not far from Balthier and Fran, Sora, Riku, Kairi and Reynn were watching and saw the sky pirates also.

"That's them. Balthier and Fran." Riku said, "Didn't I mention that Fran girl was quite hot?"

"You might have… 30 times." Sora mumbled, "And yes, I've been counting."

The latest couple just finished their routines and the crowd cheered for them.

"And that was Trisha and Roy, the Gleeful Twoful! Give 'em a big round of applause! What fabulous performance!" Shiva said.

The duo left the rink.

"Now ladies and gentlemen, welcome next to the stage, newcomers Kairi and Riku, the Graceful Twos." Ifrit said and the crowd cheered out loud for them as the duo stepped onto the ice.

Kairi appeared nervous.

"Break a leg Kairi!" Reynn cheered.

"Break a leg?" Kairi freaked out, "Is that a death wish?"

Reynn quickly shook her head and tried to explain herself. "No, no! It's…"

"Break a leg means good luck, Kairi." Riku said to her with a reassuring smile, "Just hold my hand and everything will be fine."

Kairi did so. The moment she held his hand, her fear of the ice vanished and she felt safe. Sora rolled his eyes.

The music finally played. It was _'Hikari'_ by Utada Hikaru. The duo moved in rhythm of the music, with some awesome style moves, like Riku carrying Kairi's stomach with only his hand and a foot over his head; as Kairi let herself go like a swan. The music was beautiful and the performance was amazing. So amazing that it was hard to describe their rhythm at each step. Even some of the crowd watchers were moved, like they were watching a forbidden love story. Reynn shed a couple of tears. Sora grumbled some more.

The music ended and the crowd applauded.

"Wow! What a fabulous performance!" Shiva said.

"I know! This music almost made my cry!" Ifrit said.

"Judges! Reveal your scores!"

A Moogle, a Chocobo, and a Chirithy revealed their scores "9! 9! 9!"

"Wow, that's a 27 out of 30! An A+ I must say! Congrats duets!" Ifrit said.

Kairi and Riku got off the ice to join Sora and Reynn.

"Oh my gosh, y'guys! That was awesome!" Reynn exclaimed.

"Yeah… awesome indeed." Sora said, trying to be happy for the duo, but he wasn't.

"You know you can do better than that when making snide remarks, kid." Spoke Balthier. The KH gang turned to face Balthier and Fran.

"I would've said that that performance was amazing, but I'd be lying." Fran said.

"Balthier and Fran." Riku said, his eyes narrowed and his head shaking, "When are you going to stop being such a bully and be friendly competitors for once?"

"Kid, it's a competition, not _American Idol._ " Balthier said, scratching his nose, "I wouldn't be too close to gloating if I were you. We're taking this prize again this year."

"And you're getting nothing." Fran said, "Sorry kids." The duo passed right by the gang.

"Are they always like this?" Kairi asked.

Riku sighed. "Always."

"Now ladies and gentlemen, welcome next to the stage, returning champions, Balthier and Fran, the Skypirates of Ice!" Ifrit said and the crowd cheered out loud for them as the duo boldly stepped onto the ice. The music turned on. It was 'Trouble', by Pink.

 _Trouble! Yeah, Trouble now! I'm Trouble y'All! I disturb my town, I'm trouble!_

Fran fake-slapped Balthier then Balthier jumped behind Fran and the duo moved in rhythm. They separate, still moving in rhythm. Then they joined up again and flashed their arms up in the air.

Riku, Reynn, Sora and Kairi's jaws dropped at the sight of Fran and Balthier's dance. "My gosh, they got skills!" Reynn gasped.

"For how long did they practice?" Sora asked.

"I dunno but I wish Reynn had her paintbrush with her now and draw an Anvil above their heads." Kairi said, picturing that moment in her mind. Riku laughed and so did Reynn. Sora chuckled, thinking of that moment differently, " _I wish Reynn would've drawn an Anvil above your head, Riku."_ He mumbled.

Fran jumped on Balthier and both turned their heads. Their expression looked quite serious. Fran did the slide and Balthier helped. The duo both turned facing each other again. Fran bended forward, Balthier leaned back, and vice-versa. They did the Cancan next and hereafter Balthier grabbed Fran's hand and the princess twirled towards him. Both duo twirled and formed a tornado. What seemed like snowflakes blew out from them, mesmerizing the audience. Finally they flashed their arms up the air again for the big finish. The performance had the crowd on their feet.

"UNBELIEVABLE! UNDESCRIBABLE! MOVING ON THIS ICE IS LIKE THE DANCE FLOOR FOR THOSE TWO!" Ifrit said.

"JUDGES! SCORES!" Shiva said.

The Moogle, Chocobo, and Chirithy revealed their scores

"Triple 10!"

"WHAT?" Riku, Kairi and Reynn gasped.

"Wow, that's a perfect score right there! If there was another 10! That would've been an A-plus PLUS!" Ifrit said.

"Great… now we don't have any chance." Riku sighed, defeated.

 **xXx**

"Beautiful! I think we've done it!" Lea marveled at the latest Ice cream creation that he, Lann and Tama just made.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Feast your eyes on the everlasting Peppers Puffs Ice Cream! Hot and spicy on the outside! Cold and chilly on the inside! Like me!"

"Yeah!" Lann said, "Cold on the inside! Like your heart!"

"Whaaa?" Tama gasped.

"HEY!" Lea angrily snapped, "Why do you have to be so mean to me?"

"Wuh—mean?" Lann muttered, "I didn't—what are you—?"

"I think he was the-trying to compliment you, Lea!" Tama said.

Lea was eerily silent, "Ohh…kay. Well! Should we taste it first to see if it's good?"

"It's fine the way it looks." Lann replied.

"Great!" Lea said, "Now let's give these babies away to our spectators... for a fee."

Lann and Tama took off with their ice cream creation.

"Hey, where are you guys going?" Lann asked.

"Do make the-prof… I mean, PROFIT!" Lea said before turning to Tama, "I can believe I almost talked like you."

Tama ignored him, "You just stay here to clean up the kitchen Lann! If you don't mind."

The duo left the kitchen. Lann let out a disappointed sigh, "aw, I wanted to make profit too." He went to grab a mop and a water bucket.

Ven came in to the kitchen along with Thunder.

"Hey Lann!" Ven greeted.

"Hey! what's up bro?" Lann greeted his friend.

"Got any more cookies? Or those ice creams you were makin'?" Thunder said with a fast-alerted tone, "Gotta get more of those, man!"

Ven shook his head, "Ignore him. He just finished a whole bowlful of cookies he conjured with his Keyblade Magic and now he's all hyped up on sugar!" Ven angrily faced Thunder, "Didn't Aqua said no more cookies for you?"

"Cookies huh?" Lann said, "At least they're safe to the mouth unlike that thing Lea came up with. I'm worried."

"Yeah... we need more cookies..." Ven said to Lann, "Well, not for me and definitely NOT for this guy. It's for Santa. See, I wanna prove to those two annoying wizard kids from Mysidia that Santa Claus DOES exist."

Lann furrowed his brow, "Oooh... I dunno if you'll be able to do that, knowing that you're not going to win this bet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ven muttered.

"Oh! So you really don't know?" Lann almost sounded impressed, "All right here's the dirt: Santa Claus doesn't exist."

"There's a shock." Thunder mumbled, chewing through a peppermint cookie he had just conjured up.

Ven gnashed his teeth, "agh, YOU TOO? You pathetic."

"Yeah? Say that to the one person who once made a bet on Santa's existence: me." Lann pointed at himself, "You see, it was with my friend Pompulous Snorty. He didn't believe in Santa Claus either. So I proposed to him that we go to the North Pole together and meet him in person."

"And?"

 **~Flashback…~**

"Excuse me?" said little Lann to a couple of Eskimos, talking penguins, polar bears and winter dogs in the North Pole. Little Lann and his friend Pompulous Snorty who looked like a geek were both freezing from head to toe, even though they were completely covered in high-quality winter coats.

"This is the North Pole right?" Lann said, "Can you please tell us where Santa Claus lives?"

"Santa Claus?" one Eskimo said.

"You mean that chubby guy we hear about in fairy tales?" One penguin giggled.

Suddenly the whole crew laughed out loud. "…well, good luck finding him bub!" a winter dog howled in laughter.

"We may be going extinct but we ain't goin' crazy!" a polar bear burst into tears.

Lann's heart broke at all the intense laughter. Pompulous Snorty faced him, "See? _*snorts_ * I told you. _*snorts*_ "

 **~Flashback Ends~**

"And what's worse is that that night, Christmas Eve, I waited from midnight till it was 9 in the morning! No Santa! Just my dad carrying the gifts as if HE was Santa."

"Ouch, that must've hurt." Thunder mumbled.

"I know right?" Lann replied, "The laughter still haunts me in my dreams every Christmas Eve."

"No I'm talking about that snorting your friend made." Thunder corrected, "Yeech. Talk about nasty."

Ven shook his head, trying not to believe Lann's lies, "That's impossible. I should go to the North Pole myse—!"

Lann showed him the picture he took of the laughing Eskimo, Polar Bear, Wolf and Penguin, "Here's proof. Laughter in my face."

Ven snatched the picture at stared at it in disbelief, "Oh my gosh… it really is true."

Lann continued to clean up the kitchen when he came across something even more disturbing. "And if that's not the least of my worries, look at this!" Lann showed the duo a small bottle of red substance, but it's the picture on the bottle that was the most disturbing.

"A skull with crossbones?" Ven exclaimed, "POISON?"

"Worst. Flaming peppers." Lann said, "You're supposed to take only one drop… ONE DROP… of that thing in every dish to have a medium-hot peppery taste! Too much of it, and it's death! By peppers! And that idiot Lea took too much of it!"

"How much?"

"Like a cup! ON EVERY PEPPERS PUFF!"

"Aw, come on, how hot can it be?" Thunder giggled before he scooped up a sample of the pepper with his finger and licked it.

"NO DON'T EAT THAT!" Lann screamed, "It's like wasabi with a 6 pound combo of habanero AND ghost peppers combined!"

Thunder's face turned bright red. His cheeks puffed up and his eyes rolled up like slots machine before shooting out waterfall of tears.

"AAAAUUUUUUGGGGHHHH!" he screamed, flames literally shooting out from his throat. He ran to the freezer and ducked his head there, trying to cool off the intense heat from his mouth, but his flaming mouth melted everything in the freezer.

"HEEEEELP! HEEELP! HEEEEEAAAAAAALLLP!"

The fire alarm suddenly went off. Lann and Ven ran around trying to find something to calm Thunder's throat. Lann grabbed a hose and Ven attached it to the water faucet. He turned on the faucet and Lann shot from the hose a stream of water into Thunder's mouth. But the flames wouldn't just go away. Thunder's body literally swelled up like a massive balloon, but his face was still red of peppery fury and his mouth were shooting more flames then ever.

"IT'S LIKE IT'S IMMUNE TO THE WATER!" Lann screamed.

Tama entered the kitchen to see the disaster happening. She quickly flew to the fire extinguisher behind a glass and broke the glass.

"GRAB THE EXTINGUISHER!" Tama screamed.

Lann grabbed the extinguisher and shot it into Thunder's mouth. Thunder kept swelling up and up and up and up…

"STOP THE EXTINGUISHER!" Lea screamed at Lann.

"YOU STOP THE EXTINGUISHER!" Lann shouted back, "IT'S NOT HELPING!"

"HE'S GONNA THE-BLOW UP!" Tama screamed.

 **xXx**

"We have got to find a way to prank this Terra guy." Snow was saying to a couple of Moogles as he was walking down the corridor, "Gosh I hate him so much right now, you don't know…"

BOOOOOOMMMM!

The entire hall just shook up violently, as if a bomb just went off. All heads turned to the source of the explosion: the kitchen!

Snow and the Moogles ran into the kitchen to find a large black burnt stain on the ground and a torn burnt shirt. Tama, Lann and Ven remained frozen from that trauma. The fire alarm stopped ringing.

Snow noticed the skull-crossbones pepper bottle and formed a menacing grin, "Excellent."

 **xXx**

 _SquareCity Central Mall was packed with holiday shoppers, all rushing in and out of stores to bring cheers to all on this Christmas endeavor._

Iris and Tifa entered the food court. Tifa was carrying tons of heavy shopping bags and looked like a mess, while Iris was only holding on to one small bag.

"sigh… don't you just love Christmas? Especially with this time of year bringing joy to all shoppers with its biggest 5AM store sales yet?"

Tifa dropped the bags down, "Yeah…" she growled, "…About that, next time, why don't you just remind me that all 5AM shoppers are CRAZY LIKE MOBS!"

" 'Cuz warning you won't make the shopping fun." Iris said.

The girls spotted a couple of familiar faces at a food court table: Tidus and Terra Branford, Vaan and Penelo, Squall, and Cloud.

"Hi guys!" Iris approached the gang, who greeted back.

"Oh, you're getting your holiday shopping done?" Terra B. asked.

"You better have gotten me something!" Tidus exclaimed.

"…unless you wear a skirt, then yeah we got you something." Tifa snidely said.

"This isn't for you guys. It's for me!" Iris said cheerfully.

"Wow, how thoughtful." Vaan said, rolling his eyes. The guys chuckled.

"Hey, this is serious!" Iris said, "I got me lots of cute outfits to wear for Noctis to see me in when he comes to SquareCity to visit me for Christmas."

"Noctis huh?" Penelo said with a smile.

"Well, you better wear something fast, 'cuz he went to the restroom not long ago." Cloud revealed.

"We just picked him up from the aerodrome." Squall pointed out.

"WHAT?" Iris freaked out. At that moment, Tifa spotted Noctis not far from the crowd approaching the table. "Uh-oh. Here he comes."

"I CAN'T CHANGE FAST!" Iris freaked out, before facing Terra B. and Penelo, "Girls, do something! Teleport me to the nearest changing room!"

"I can't. I don't have my staff." Terra B. exclaimed.

"I'm all tapped out of white magic helping the poor and needy for our Christmas charity run." Penelo explained.

"I'm back." Noctis spoke, startling Iris. Iris turned to face him and grinned nervously, "Noctis! You're here!"

"Hi Iris." Noctis said without a smile. That got Iris even more nervous. "Oh no! What's with the dull greeting! I look hideous don't I? DON'T I?"

Noctis shook his head, "No, you look beautiful." He then dismissively looked back to the table, "So, are we gonna eat or what?"

"Seriously Noctis, what's _with_ your moping?" Tifa curiously asked, "It's the holidays."

"Yeah, you won't believe it," Vaan pointed out, "But prince-a-lot here never had a Christmas before in his life."

"Never?" Iris exclaimed.

"Ever." Tidus then confirmed, with Vaan nodding his head.

"Guys, I've _had_ Christmas back home." Noctis clarified, "but, it's just like a big major birthday for humanity. And I don't know what the big deal is."

"What the big deal? It's Christmas!" Iris exclaimed and the whole table except Noctis agreed, "It's a time for giving and sharing and like you said, it's a birthday for everybody…"

Vaan was about to make a snide remark based on what she said but Iris pointed the finger at him, "Don't push it."

"…and it's also a time to spend with family and friends." Terra B. pointed out.

"And gifts!" Tidus exclaimed.

"So," Noctis said, "I guess Christmas ain't my thing… and I'm not in the mood to start one now…"

"How about we help you start one now?" Iris cheerfully said before facing the guys.

"What did I just say?" Noctis complained.

"Guys. Go order some foods. Delicious ones even." Iris said to the guys.

"I'll have some spicy chicken!" Terra B. gleefully said.

"All right, but can we make it fast?" Vaan moped, "We gotta watch that movie in less than an hour. We won't have enough time to care for the grumpy and the bah-humbug!"

"Yeah!" the guys all suddenly agreed.

"What movie?" Tifa curiously asked.

" _Assassin's Creed."_ Squall said, "It's action-packed. No girls allowed."

"Well, this is gonna have to wait." Penelo said to the guys, "First priority is to cheer up Noctis."

"What?" the guys exclaimed.

"Since when do you change plans? We were supposed to watch that movie together as a coup—err… as BFFLs"

"Since Squall said that the movie's no girls allowed." Penelo replied.

The guys groaned. Tidus glowered at Squall, "Thanks a lot, Squall!"

Squall just shrugged. The guys went to one of the food stands of the food court.

"Come on guys. The faster we do this, the better time to can watch half of the action." Cloud said. "We order the same thing, but Terra gets the spicy chicken."

Mog, the moogle appeared on the stand, "Kupo-po! Welcome to Kupo Chow! May I take your orders, Kupo?"

"Yeah, give us Teriyaki for eight, and spicy chicken for Terra." Squall ordered.

Snow suddenly appeared from underground manga-style, freaking the guys out, "Did you just say Terra?" he exclaimed.

"Uhh, yeah." Squall said, "And put a side of fried rice on that, and make it quick."

Snow grinned evilly, "You got it." He blew a whistle and all Moogles including Mog gathered around him like a football huddle, "You know what to do right?"

Mog showed Snow the dangerous pepper bottle they snatched from Lann back in the kitchen. Snow's grin grew wide, "Beautiful…"

Snow, Mog, and the Moogles quickly served the foods, and poured half a bottle of the pepper on the spicy chicken, and handed the food over to the guys,

"Here you go. That'll be 45.50 Gil." Snow grinned.

"Wow, that's expensive." Cloud said before paying the amount. Vaan glowered at Snow nervously, "Can you stop with that freakish smile? It's scaring me."

Snow stopped smiling, "Sorry."

The guys left with the foods and went back to the table, unaware of the scheme Snow was about to pull on them. Snow and the Moogles secretly high-fived each other. "We did it! I can't believe it, Kupo!" Mog giggled.

"I know. And pretty soon, Terra's mouth's gonna be on fire so much, they'll be calling the fire department!"

"Yeah, great… except…" another Moogle watched as the guys served the food at the table and served Terra B. the lethal spicy chicken, "…that's not Terra!"

Mog saw Terra B. and gasped, "THAT'S TERRA _BRANFORD_! The GIRL Terra!"

"WHAAAT?" Snow screamed. He jumped over the stand, pushing customers and passersby out of the way, trying to reach the table, "NO, DON'T EAT—!"

Terra B. took a bite out of the chicken. Snow froze. "…t…that…"

Her face turned red, and tears came pouring out of her eyes like waterfall.

"AAAAUUUUUUGGGGHHHH!" she screamed, flames literally shooting out from her throat.

Her body suddenly shot off from its seat and flew around the food court, out of control. Everyone freaked out as she morphed into her Esper Form and turned violent from the peppers. She shot flames around like a dragon, destroying Christmas decors hanging from the ceiling and burning down a nearby Christmas tree, even almost struck down a Mall Santa Claus. Everyone went screaming and running for their lives.

"Terra! TERRAA!" Vaan called out to her, "Calm down!"

Terra's eyes glowered at Vaan, like a robot who just found its target. She shot another flaming beam and it struck the table. Everyone jumped out of the way unharmed. Terra closed in on Iris and was about to finish her. Noctis jumped in, grabbed all the shopping bags and tossed them at Terra, creating distraction. Terra shot the shopping bags down with her flames. Noctis quickly seized his chance and waved his hand toward her, freezing Terra on contact. The frozen Esper fell on the ground, subdued. Everyone went to see if she was okay, and security and paramedics went to seek her medical attention.

The destroyed shopping bags rained around Terra and the mall. Noctis noticed Iris's face, looking like she saw a ghost.

An angry Cloud ran up to Snow, and Squall followed him. "What did you gave her?" he screamed.

"I… kinda gave her something… like this?" Snow nervously showed Cloud the bottle. Cloud angrily slapped the bottle from Snow's hand and pointed at him.

"You gave her Flaming Peppers?" Squall yelled.

"WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL?" Cloud barked.

"I'm sorry!" Snow exclaimed, "I thought she was… someone else…"

"We demand our meals free for the damage!" Squall growled, "Give us back the money. Now."

The moogles quickly paid Squall and Cloud back their Gils. Cloud and Squall left Snow to see if Terra B. was okay.

"But I thought she was somebody else." Snow mumbled. He angrily faced the Moogles, "That guy said Terra! TERRA!"

"But he didn't say Terra _Branford_!" Mog shrugged.

"But what kind of psycho would give a girl the name TERRA!" Snow snapped.

"…somebody called me?" Terra, the BOY Terra, suddenly appeared from underground manga-style, freaking Snow and the Moogles out. "AaUGGH!"

"You!" Snow growled.

"Hey, I gotta give you props. You wanted to prank someone who looked like me, but you fail to identify someone with the same _name_ as me. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Rookie mistake. Here. Have a cookie for your effort." Terra offered Snow a cookie. Snow glared at it, then back at Terra.

"It's Macademian."

"Ooh!" Snow quickly grabbed the cookie and took a bite.

 _SNAPS!_

"AAAUGGGH! MY MOUTH! MY MOOOUUUTH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OHHHFFF!" Snow's lips got trapped by some metal. The moogles quickly rushed to his aid and removed the cookie from his lips.

"A mouse trap!" Mog screamed, upon uncovering a small trap buried in the cookie.

"Hey, pranks can get ugly right?" Terra winked and quietly left the food court.

Meanwhile, Noctis approached Iris, "Hey, don't feel bad. You can return to the store and show them the receipt for refund."

"…th-th-the receipts…w-w-were in the bag…?" Iris mumbled, "…and the gifts were 100,000 Gil total… …and I used the Royal Court's cuh-cuh-cuh…credit…card."

Noctis's eyes and jaws widened in horror.

 **xXx**

 _Back at Edenhall, was a troubled boy; conflicted he was, from all the tales of nonbelievers yonder, was still on the quest to make believers and himself witness Santa Claus._

Ventus was heading off the Library with the milk and cookies on hand. Terra who just arrived from the mall saw him.

"Ven. Still up to your old tricks?" he smiled at his brotherly friend.

"I just want those kids to believe okay?" Ven snapped. "I just learned from Lann that Santa Claus doesn't exist. I mean, what kind of craziness is that? What about all those gifts I got from under the tree when I was a boy?"

"You know, I was a boy once." Terra said, "And I believed."

"Oh, fantastic." Ven grumbled, "That's two nonbelievers I see. No, make that four."

"Hey, wait a second." Terra stopped him. Ven sighed, "You gotta know that Christmas isn't just about getting presents. It's about spending time with the people you love. Family and friends."

"Yeah?" Ven smiled.

Terra nodded.

Ven's smile quickly vanished, "Well, what's the point of Christmas if kids don't believe in Christmas miracles? I'm outta here." And he was off.

Aqua saw the whole thing and approached Terra. "Still don't wanna listen huh?" she sighed.

"Yeah… but he'll find out sooner or later." Terra said.

"Speaking of Christmas present, I couldn't resist." Aqua handed Terra a gift. "I made you something."

"Oh, sweet." Terra ripped open the wrapping and opened the box.

BOOOOMMM! An explosion singed Terra's face. The smoke cleared up and Terra's hair looked wild and his face was charred.

"HAAAH! HAHAHAHAHA!" A cackling laugh was heard. It was Snow, pointing and laughing at Terra. "Psych! Explosive Christmas Present! Works every time."

Terra glared back at Aqua, growling under his breath. Aqua shrugged nervously, "I'm sorry Terra, but Snow promised me 200 Gil if I helped him prank you."

"Here's your payment as promise." Snow tossed Aqua the Gil, "Get yourself something nice, ya naughty girl."

"Don't push it."

"Sorry."

Aqua left happily with the cash. Terra grinned back at Snow, "Well played, my young protégé. You singed my face _and_ destroyed my beautiful eyebrows." His grin faded to a menacing glare, "But this isn't over… somehow, someway… I… am gonna get'cha." He approached Snow till they were nose-to-nose.

Snow smirked, "…yeah, like you will get me before I do."

"Well, bring it on then."

"Oh, I'll bring it. By the way, what's it?"

"I dunno. But _I…_ will bring it. And make sure you don't prank another Terra next time, like I dunno, the _world_ Terra?"

"Grr…"

The two boys left.

 **xXx Next Chapter xXx**


	2. Part 2 of 3

**Disclaimer: All the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series belong to Square-Enix. The characters** **Lann, Reynn, Tama, and** ** **Aya Brea** belong to Square Enix also, and the original character, Johnny Thunder, belongs to me and appears in **_**Kingdom Hearts III Online HD.**_

 **-** _SquareEnix City_ **-  
Adventures on Christmas Day**

 **-** _Part 2 of 3_ **-**

xXx

 _And so Noctis lost his Christmas spirit. How will others be dealing with this?_

 _And what is up with Riku and Kairi? Will they make it to the finale?_

 _As long as there are no pranks on the scene, everything shall be fine indeed._

Back at Mt. Crystallis, live from the Winter Fantasy ice rink stage:

"The results are in!" Shiva said as she opened the envelope with her sharp icicle fingernail. "The finalists for the Winter Fantasy competition are…"

She was about to read it but Ifrit snatched the letter from her and read it instead, "Balthier and Fran!"

The crowd cheered and applauded as Balthier and Fran took the stage to greet their fans. Riku, Kairi, Sora, and Reynn all looked glum.

"Great. They're going to the final round." Kairi said with a sigh, "What chance do we have for us to be in the finals?"

"I wouldn't worry too much Kairi." Sora said with a reassuring smile, "There's always next year." He then faced Riku, "It's kinda too bad that you two won't be dancing again."

"And our second finalists are…!" Shiva revealed, "…RIKU AND KAIRI!"

The crowd cheered and applauded again just when the spotlight struck Riku and Kairi. The duo looked speechless. Reynn quickly screamed in cheer, "Oh my gosh! You're in the finals! Well, go on! Go on! Fans are waiting!"

Riku and Kairi quickly ran to the ice rink to greet their fans, full of smiles. Sora grumbled with his arms crossed.

"Thank you for watching the first live competition!" Ifrit said, "We'll be back in just one hour for the grand finale competition when the Winter Fantasy competition returns!"

Every one dispersed from the ice rink and so did the contestants.

"Congratulations guys!" Reynn squealed, "Oh my gosh! I cannot believe you're in the finals! We should celebrate! Right Sora?" Reynn turned to a green-looking Sora.

"Yeah… we should." Sora said, trying to hide his jealousy.

"How about ice cream?" Riku proposed.

"How about lunch?" Kairi proposed again.

"Even better." Riku agreed and the group took off.

 **xXx**

 _With Snow and Terra competing for gifts, who shall be crown pranksters on this Christmas Eve?_

Snow was waking up from his siesta. His eyes fluttered opened and he looked up to see Terra all up on his face.

"HEY!" Snow jumped.

"Mornin' buddy." Terra grinned, "You sure are a heavy sleeper. Or should I say… heavy slipper?"

"What?" Snow looked up to see his bed in the middle of the Mt. Crystallis ice rink, surrounded by people and the media!

"KYAAA!"

Terra pushed Snow's bed and skated off. Everyone started laughing out loud as the bed spun around the rink. Snow tried to get out of bed, but he couldn't control the bed that was slipping out of control. "HEAAALP! HEAAALP! HEAAAALLLPP!" his screams drowned through the uproarious laughter of the crowd.

Later…

"This is your Moogle Newsanchor, reporting you live at Mt. Crystallis, of a mean prank someone just pulled on an innocent Square-Enix City citizen. Just watch!"

Snow is seen on the TV, screaming his guts out. Serah who was cutting on the vegetables accidentally cut herself when she saw this, "Ouch!"

Sazh who was just passing by saw the mess she just did, "Dang, woman. Didn't your mama ever taught you not to play with knives?"

"Very funny Sazh." Serah frowned before showing him the news report, "Look!"

Sazh watched the report. At that same moment, Lightning came in.

"HA! HA! HA!" Sazh laughed heartily, "Man, these boys would do ANYTHING for your gifts, Lightning! Whoo-wee! Pass me the popcorn!"

"…ugh…why do I even bother." Lightning mumbled before trailing off the room.

"Where are you goin'?" Serah asked.

"You'd be surprised."

 **xXx**

Back at the mall,

"You're okay now Terra?" Cloud asked Terra Branford, who had recovered to normal from her earlier scare.

"I'm fine now…" she sighed.

"You really freaked us out before." Vaan said. "Don't do that again, all right?"

"You can't just tell her not to do that again." Squall told Vaan, "It wasn't her fault you know?"

"I know!" He replied, "But I don't like it when people freak out on me like that!"

Tifa looked around, as if someone was missing, "Hey, where's Noctis?"

All heads looked around the mall. No sign of the Lucis prince.

"I haven't seen him since the incident." Penelo said.

Noctis was finally spotted. He was about 20 feet away from the food court, sitting on a chair, all by his lonesome. His chin resting on one hand, as he watched children and their families playing on the ice rink one floor below and having a good time. He sighed and closed his eyes.

"HEEY, Noctis!" A scream startled him. Iris was standing in front of him.

"ugh… what now?" he groaned.

"Just wanted to check up on you. How you doin'?"

"I'm fine." He quickly said with a fake smile.

"No you're not!" Iris said. "You're in a mood."

"Well, you wasted 100,000 Gil worth of gifts using the Royal Court's credit card. What do you think?"

"I thought you forgave me for it." Iris groaned, "And besides, YOU tossed them into those flames!"

Noctis rolled his eyes. At that same time, Tifa, Penelo and Terra joined Iris and Noctis. The guys were staying behind.

"Merry Christmas Noctis!" Penelo greeted.

"It's not even Christmas yet." Noctis said.

"At least accept this candy cane!" she handed over one to him, "It's Peppermint."

Noctis stared at the candy cane for a short time. "Thanks…" he took it, "But no thanks." He then tossed it over his shoulder. The candy cane dunked into a nearby trash can.

"Noct!" Iris hissed.

Noctis shrugged, "What? The candy cane wasn't even wrapped! And I'm pretty sure it's soggy just by looking at it." He turned to face Iris, "Look, I appreciate what you and your friends are trying to do, but I just need some time alone." He walked away, leaving the FF girls behind.

"Wow, he's hopeless." Tifa frowned.

Penelo crossed her arms, "Seriously, what's Noctis's problem?"

Iris was about to say something but then clam up. The shadiness got the girls' attention.

"You know something don't you?" Penelo asked.

"Uh, what?" she quickly shook her head, "No-no! No, no!" she giggled nervously, "I don't know anything. Why do you think I know something?"

Awkward silence fell in the group.

"HEY, how about we go back shopping? My treat!" Iris turned around and ran to a nearby department store.

"But Iris!" Tifa shouted, "You're gonna end up maxing out Noctis's credit—oh great, she's gone."

"Hey girls! What's up?" spoke Tidus. The girls noticed him, Cloud, Squall and Vaan coming up to them.

Penelo sighed, "What's up is that Christmas is closing in very, very soon, and Noctis is not in the Christmas spirit."

"Did you ask him why?" Squall asked.

Terra sighed as if in defeat. "He didn't give us a chance."

"But you know what's strange?" Tifa added, "Iris seems to know what's up with him."

The boys lit up. "That's great!" Vaan said.

"But she's avoiding the question."

"Oh."

"Well, it's OUR job to make a fellow Square Enix City man—no, a fellow Square Enix City king—full of cheers on Christmas." Tifa said.

"Good for you girls!" Tidus said.

"Great! So you guys do it!" Penelo added.

"What?" Vaan shouted.

"No!" Tidus exclaimed, "We have that cool movie we wanna watch!"

"Then watch it another time!" Penelo snapped, "This guy needs to have his Christmas spirit brightened up whether you like it or not!"

"And you can watch your movie another time." Tifa said.

Vaan growled, "You girls are impossible. How are we going to cheer him up, if YOU girls can't?"

Terra B. shrugged, "Improvise!"

The girls walked away, leaving the boys behind.

Cloud sighed in defeat, "So much for watching that _Assassin's Creed_ movie."

"You know what guys?" Vaan snapped, "Christmas is about spoiling ourselves ROTTEN, NOT making people who wants to be Scrooge McDuck all December long happy!"

"It's actually Ebenezer Scrooge." Cloud corrected him, "Scrooge McDuck _loves_ Christmas." He then paused, "…but he loves money more."

Vaan dismissed him. "So who's in?" he said.

"Who's in on…" Squall asked.

"On watching that _Assassin's Creed_ movie?" Vaan asked.

Cloud and Squall looked at each other, uncertain, "Well…"

Tidus shot his hand up high, "I AM!" Cloud and Squall looked back at him with utter surprise.

"Great! Let's go!" Vaan said and Tidus followed him.

"Guys really?" Cloud said, "You know we can always get the movie on Blu-Ray right?"

"Taking care of King Noct is most import-"

"You get it on Blu-Ray!" Tidus interrupted, "And you deal with Noct yourselves! We are going to see the Assassin on the big screen! Yeah baby! Whoo!" The two guys departed, leaving Cloud and Squall behind.

"Wow…" Squall muttered, "Unbelievable."

"Right?" Cloud agreed.

Silence fell with the two swordsmen.

Cloud shifted, "…gonna head off to the boys' restroom…"

"You're not going anywhere." Squall said quickly, and Cloud sat back down without a protest.

Tidus and Vaan finally reached the Mall Cineplex where they were greeted by a lovely young blonde with cerulean blue eyes.

"Hello gentlemen." She greeted warmly.

"Why hello there, sweet thang." Tidus waved his eyebrows, "You work alone? Miss…" Tidus glanced at her name tag, "…Aya?"

The woman—Aya—grinned. "Oh. I'm alone… And…" She then reached down and pulled up her dress to reveal her luscious leg… with a gun strapped to it!

"…I'm also armed and dangerous." She warned with a stern tone. Tidus and Vaan both jumped back startled. "So, you gonna buy tickets to see a movie, or do I have to call an ambulance so they can take you to the morgue if you don't stop flirting with me?"

"Okay, okay! Got your point!" Tidus said quickly.

She pulled her dress back down.

Tidus then muttered to Vaan, "Sheesh. She could've just said she's taken."

Vaan looked back at Tidus, "Aren't YOU taken? With Yuna?"

Tidus was quiet.

Vaan turned back to Aya, "Tickets to see _Assassin's Creed_? And a jumbo-size popcorn to go?"

"Oh sorry, we're all sold out of regular tickets. But we only have two VIP tickets to see the film." She said, "Both 100 Gil each."

Vaan's jaws dropped. "100 Gil each?"

"Can't you take discount or something?" Tidus added.

Aya shook her head.

Tidus and Vaan exchanged sad looks. They stepped away to speak privately.

"That's crazy!" Tidus groaned, "100 Gil? That's like our entire Christmas savings!"

Vaan sighed, "Guess we don't have a choice buddy."

"We walk away from the greatest experience on Earth?"

Vaan chortled, "No!" he said, "We sneak into it! Watch."

He approached Aya, and Tidus followed. "Hi, Aya. I think we're ready to see the movie."

Aya smiled, "Perfect! That'll be—"

Vaan pressed two fingers to Aya's forehead and shouted, " _Timeslip!_ " Instantly, a ghostly-looking clock formed above Aya and she froze, her color faded to black and white.

Tidus's jaws dropped. "What the—"

"Tidus, come on!" Vaan took off into the movie plex. Tidus just stood there, watching the hand on the clock above Aya's head slowly moving by the second.

He quickly shook his head, stormed past her and ran after Vaan. He then did a 180, snatched a popcorn from a paying customer nearby and followed Vaan.

 **xXx**

 _And as two young men are ignoring their Christmas spirit restoration duty,_

 _One must learn to keep his cool, by not showing any jealousy._

Back at Mt. Crystallis, Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Reynn were at an outdoor restaurant having a delicious meal, whilst enjoying a firework lightshow spectacular not far from the Winter Fantasy ice rink.

"Isn't this beautiful?" Kairi said to her friends, "This floating resort has so much to offer."

"I know." Riku added, "I love the display of the Winter Fantasy Show fireworks. It's awesome."

"So you've heard about that mean prank Terra pulled on Snow earlier back at the rink?" Sora said, chewing loudly on his food, "It's so hilarious! That put me in the mood." He then sat back, unwound, and out came a loud burp.

"Ew, Sora." Reynn yelped.

"That's the mood they put you in?" Kairi chuckled.

Sora shrugged, "Sorry, can't help it… ham, turkey, eggnog ice cream. Nothing beats the holidays like foods."

"Yeah, but why do you have to burp so loud?" Kairi said.

"You're not the boss of me!" Sora snapped.

Thunder, Lann and Tama joined the rest of the cast.

"Hey guys, have you the-seen Lea?" Tama asked, "It's an emergency."

"No, but have you seen Thunder?" Sora's eyes went wide when he saw Thunder, so did everyone on the table. Thunder's face was all bright red and he looked like a sumo wrestler who had added an additional 300-pound. His cool outfit was all torn up only to reveal his almost torn up underwear.

Riku stifled, "Seriously, what in Kingdom Hearts' name happened?"

"A reaction to the Flaming Feathers." Thunder spoke, his voice sounding like his mouth was swollen, "Obviously, SOMEBODY should have warned me?" he angrily snapped at Lann.

"I DID warn you!" Lann exclaimed, "You're the one who wanted to TRY it out, Mr. Risk-it-all! And besides, the effect should worn off in thirty minutes or so."

"Which is the-why we need to find Lea, fast!" Tama said, "Thunder will be the-okay with this, but what about everyone else? He must NOT the-serve those citizens those deathly dishes."

 _Ice cream, huh?_ Sora thought. He looked around and spotted Lea with a stack of his venomous creations. He then stared at the table filled with leftovers and all… no dessert, he thought. He then mustered a menacing smile before leaving the table as the rest of his comrades got distracted.

Not far from that table at that same moment, a young man with his Chocobo arrived. The young man tied up his Chocobo, but loosely, to a stable. "Now Boko, you stay right here. No funny business, a'ight?"

The Chocobo nodded and the young man took off. Sora passed right by him, "Excuse me?" and spotted Lea nearby, "There you are."

"Ah, Sora. Just in time to try out my Pepper Puffs Ice Cream." Lea said with a smile, "They're to die for."

"Ah! Ohh! Believe me. They will kill." Sora replied with his menacing smile, "I'll take a bucket!"

Lea looked startled, "Whoa, serious? A bucket?"

Sora nodded.

"A'ight. Suit yourselves for a-ten, fifteen Gil only!" Lea said.

Sora paid Lea for the ice cream, "Here you go! Oh, and whatever happened, I never saw you."

Lea raised an eyebrow, "Why? You just did, and you just made my Christmas business start off with a bang! So why keep the quiet? Spread the news man! HEY!" Lea yelled to the crowd, catching everyone's attention, "COME GET YOUR PEPPER PUFFS ICE CREAM RIGHT NOW FOR 5 GIL! AND A BUCKET FOR 15!"

Sora panicked, "Hey, would you be quiet?"

But Lea wasn't listening, "BEING PURCHASED ONLY BY MY MAN RIGHT HERE—!"

"I said be quiet!" Sora tossed the bucket of ice creams as he tried to shut Lea's mouth. The bucket flew over the crowd, all the ice cream falling all over like snow. The Chocobo Boko eyeballed an ice cream that went straight into Riku's hair.

"KWEEEH!" The Chocobo squealed, snapped the rope from the stable and took off running. Everyone screamed and got out of the way from the runaway bird beast. The young man ran to the stable too late, failing to stop his Chocobo pet, "Boko! No!" he shouted.

Back at the table, Riku and the others were still talking, unaware of the danger that was coming from a flaming pepper ice cream still buried underneath Riku's full head of hair.

"Look, if we can't find the-Lea, lots of people are gonna get hurt!" Tama said.

"Like me." Thunder said.

"Riku?" Kairi asked him. Riku turned to face her. She was staring frantically at Riku, as if something was wrong with him.

"What? What is it?" he asked, already a bit worried.

"Why is your head, bleeding?"

"My head bleeding?" Riku felt something liquid trailing down his forehead from his head. He wiped a sample with his finger and examined it, "That's not my blood, that's…!"

Everyone stared at the substance, "Ice cream?" they said.

"KWEEEH!" The Chocobo is heard from afar. All heads turned to the direction of screaming people getting out of the way. They watched as the Chocobo came charging.

"AAAAHHHHH!"

Riku searched frantically for the melting ice cream from his head. He quickly grabbed it, but just as he was about to throw it, the Chocobo tackled the table, knocking every dish and everyone apart. The rope around the Chocobo's neck trailed behind, wrapped around Riku's leg, and pulled. Before Riku knew it, he was dragged around Mt. Crystallis by the Chocobo. Everyone screamed. "RIKU!"

"UWAAAHHH!" Riku yelped.

"Boko!" The young man ran behind, chasing his Chocobo, "I COMMAND YOU TO STOP!"

Sora and Lea rushed behind as well. They watched as the screaming Chocobo wasn't listening to his master, ravaging every table and every place he could see. Before everyone knew it, the Chocobo was heading straight for a nearby cliff that was overlooking a massive frozen ocean. Everyone screamed.

"RIKUUU!"

The Chocobo saw the ocean and screamed, "KWEEEH!" He put on the brakes. He was inches away from falling 70-feet off the cliff when he finally stopped. But Riku wasn't that lucky: he flew off the cliff!

"UWWAAAAAHHHH!" Everyone watched in horror Riku disappearing over the frozen ocean, his screaming trailing off until a massive crash was heard below. Everyone ran to the cliff to see what has happened to Riku.

"RIKU!" Kairi exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! Are you okay?"

"He's fine…" Reynn predicted, "…I mean, I think I know he is."

"Riku!" Lann shouted. "Dude, if you're okay, say something!"

"… ow…" Riku's painful groan was all they could hear.

The gang let out a sigh of relief.

"Somebody call an ambulance!" Kairi shouted to the public and everyone dispersed out to get some help.

 **xXx**

 _What happened to Riku was tragic, and so dead is the couple's chance at winning the Winter Fantasy._

Riku was in an ambulance. Kairi, Reynn, Zack, Thunder, and Sora were by his side. Thunder had returned to his normal form, but he was still red-faced.

"Riku, you're okay?" Sora asked, "Wow, you're pretty banged up."

Riku was all wrapped up in bandages. He couldn't speak, but could only groan.

"How could this have happened?" Kairi yelled in horror, "You got tackled by a Chocobo!"

"All because of an ice cream." Reynn shook her head.

"An ice cream?" Sora asked, acting out.

"Well, yeah." Lann replied, "A bizarre ice cream fell into Riku's head earlier and that's why the Chocobo tackled him."

Tama rejoined the gang to reveal her findings, "That ice cream was a Flaming Pepper." she said, "Lea was nearby, and apparently he got to his first customer."

Sora gulped, knowing that _he_ was that customer.

"But I guess that customer didn't like his ice cream either." Thunder pointed out, "Which explains why it landed into Riku's head."

Riku groaned again.

"Ohh, Riku…" Kairi rushed to Riku's side and kissed him on the forehead, "I'm so sorry this has to happen to you! Especially when we were THIS close to winning the Winter Fantasy Finals!"

An ambulance operator came to the scene and escorted everyone out of the ambulance, "Sorry everyone, but we gotta take him to the hospital now."

"We can visit him right?" Reynn asked.

"I dunno." The operator said, "With today being Christmas Eve and all, I'm afraid the hospital might be closed."

The ambulance closed its back door and took off for its destination. Kairi then faced the rest of the gang, "Guys! What are we going to do now?"

"Simple." Spoke the voice of Balthier nearby. All heads turned to him and his partner Fran. "Why don't you just…" he shrugged, "Oh, I dunno… drop out of the competition?"

"It'll make everyone's lives easier here." Fran said.

"How about you shove it, rabbit freak?" Sora insulted Fran. Fran angrily approached Sora, till they were nose-to-chest (with Sora being the one facing Fran's chest)

"How about you say that again, and this time, articulate it with all your teeth in?" Fran threatened with a fist forming.

Sora's eyes trailed Fran's chest to face her angry red eyes. He stammered, "I… I… I…" He quickly shook his head, snapping out of it, and cleared his throat, "Look." He spoke firmly, "All I'm saying is that we're not gonna give up!"

All heads turned to face Sora. "Yeah, that's right!" Sora replied as if in response to their questionable looks, "WE, are not giving up! With Riku out of the pict—err… out of the running, it doesn't mean that we're going to be out of the running as well! _I_ will compete with Kairi."

Everyone gasped.

"Y-You?" Balthier stifled, "Competing against _us_?"

Fran and Balthier suddenly laughed uproariously. They left the gang; still laughing hard like there was no tomorrow.

"You… are going to compete for the Winter Fantasy Finals?" Lann asked Sora who nodded with confidence.

"But… you suck!" Reynn said.

Sora cocked his head on one side, feeling offended. Reynn quickly added, "…well, at figure skating of course! Not at everything else! I mean, you can't skate!"

"Of course I can't skate! But…" Sora turned to face Kairi, "…if Kairi can teach me, I can pick it up before the main event, right? I mean we only got like what? An hour?"

"Dude." Thunder stared at his watch, "It's fifteen minutes before the main event."

"...oh." Sora mumbled. He quickly perked up, "But still, that's not gonna stop me from making my best girl…" he stammered, "…f-f-friend, the happiest girl this holiday season. So, what do you say?"

Kairi smiled before giving Sora a kiss on the cheek, "Sora. You just made me that happiest girl this holiday season. And yes, I will teach you how to skate."

 **xXx**

 _Two friends blinded by greed, ignored the true meaning of Christmas cheer,_

 _Unbeknownst to them, the hard way will creep in on them, in the form of a beautiful queen._

Tidus and Vaan entered the movie theater room. It had a galaxy-view skylight right above them. Comfy sofas filled the place. They also saw moogles in suits, carrying gold towels and empty silver platters. It was like first class movie theater.

"Whoaaa~!" they breathed.

"This. Place. Is. Awesome…" Vaan breathed, "Seriously Tidus, why aren't you a full-time NBL player?"

Tidus stopped smiling, taking that as an insult. NBL players were Blitzball players employed by the National Blitzball League, and highly endorsed in the Square Enix City and around the world.

"I AM a full-time NBL player."

Vaan cocked his head on one side, "Really? Because according to _Wikipedia_ you supposed to have a salary base of 1 million Gil. But, you're still broke."

"Am not!"

Vaan was about to say "Are too" when his eyes suddenly lit up with realization, "Ohhh!" he then laughed, "I forgot! I totally forgot about how bad Wiki's reputation is about their REAL sources!"

"Would you be quiet?" he hissed.

Vaan raised his hands in surrender.

The two friends went to take their seats. Instantly the two Moogles approached them.

"Would you care for a little back massage, Kupo?" one of the Moogles asked.

"Please!" The two friends said together. The Moogles went to massage their backs.

"Oohhh…"

Tidus soon noticed a young woman, beautiful and clad in white, coming into the theater. His face lit up at her sight.

"Whoa!" Tidus slapped Vaan's chest, "Look who it is!"

Vaan looked up and his jaws dropped, "Is that Queen Lunafreya Nox Fleuret?"

"And she's surrounded by her royal bodyguards." He pointed out at least four large men dressed in black suits and tie.

"We should go greet them." Vaan stood up, but Tidus yanked him back to his seat, "What?" he almost shouted, "Are you crazy?"

"Hey man, relax." Vaan said, "I've talked to queens before."

"Just one queen. Queen Ashe. And you guys traveled together."

"So?"

"You never traveled with Queen Lunafreya!"

"Neither did you." Vaan said, "Besides, what's life if you don't take a little risk?" with that he stood up, forcing the Moogle to stop massaging him, and went toward her.

Tidus pondered on Vaan's words. Wise words of course, but a little too risky. He stood up also, and his Moogle stopped massaging him as well, and he followed Vaan.

"Excuse me?" Vaan approached the group, "Hi! Are you—"

The bodyguards pulled out guns and aimed at Vaan. Vaan froze, "WOAH!"

"State your business!" one of the bodyguards shouted.

"I'm Vaan from Ivalice!"

"An intruder?"

"No I'm not! No-no-no-no-no-no-no! I'm…"

"You know what to do?" shouted the bodyguard and all of them loaded their guns.

"Let him pass." Luna said.

The bodyguards hesitated. They finally lowered their guns and Vaan slowly crept up toward Luna. Luna smiled, "You don't have to be afraid of me."

Vaan gulped. "A-actually, I'm not. I'm…" he gazed at the bodyguards, "…afraid of your entourage."

Tidus slowly tried to sneak in pass the bodyguards. They quickly grabbed him and lifted him off his feet, "WHOA! HEY!" he freaked out.

"Let him go too." Luna said. They hesitated again but obeyed.

"I'm guessing you want an autograph from me?" she asked.

Tidus nodded furiously, "Yes, yes, yes with a thousand words, yes!"

Luna opened her small purse and pulled out a postcard book. She ripped a postcard off the book and signed her name on it, then closed the book, put it back to her purse and closed it.

"There you go." She handed it to Tidus. Tidus carefully took it from her hand.

Luna then paused to look at Tidus, "Hey…" she gave him a big smile, "I know you."

Tidus froze, "You do?"

Vaan blinked, "You do?"

"You're a famous NBL player right? From Zanarkhand?"

Tidus nodded furiously, "Yes! Yes! Oh my gosh! I can't believe you know me!"

"Yes!" Luna said, "My brother used to love watching you."

The smile vanished from Tidus's face, " _Used to_?" he muttered, as if hurt.

"He passed away." Luna replied with sadness, "Long story. But I am still happy, as a matter of fact."

"With Noctis?" Vaan said his name with disdain, "I think you can do better, Lunafreya."

Luna gave Vaan a stern look. So did the bodyguards, "I mean, Queen Lunafreya."

"I think you need to give His Majesty some slack." One of the bodyguards spoke. "King Noctis is a very shy king, but he can be sociable and loving to his dear wife."

"If he's so loving then why is he not with Her Highness so close to Christmas?" Vaan argued.

"Hate to break it to you guys, but he's been mopey since we've ran into him at the mall." Tidus explained, "The girls wanted us to cheer him up yet they are doing a lousy job at it."

Luna's stern gaze now turned sterner, "The girls," she said, "doing a _lousy_ job?"

Vaan and Tidus grinned nervously, "Not _all_ girls!" Vaan said.

Luna let out a sad sigh. She looked at her bodyguards and gave them a dismissive wave. Instantly the bodyguards walked away, giving the trio some privacy.

"You guys don't get it, do you?" Luna began, "November 29th was a tragic day for both the Lucis and Tenebrae kingdoms. It was more tragic for Noctis. His father died that day."

A solemn gaze painted Vaan and Tidus's faces.

"You're kidding me?" Tidus said.

Luna shook her head. "Nobody here at Square Enix City knows the details of what happened, except the continent of Eos itself. The only thing this city knows is our royal identities."

She sighed again, "It's actually my fault. I proposed to Noctis that we visit the city for the Christmas season and then rent a room at one of the landmark buildings. Edenhall was it? And then we get to attend the Winter Festival happening at Mt. Crystallis. All of us used to go there together with our parents when we were kids."

She then added, "We decided that we were going to keep our private lives to a minimum. Word spread quickly about our coming here however, thankfully no one knows about our family history. Noctis is not really good at keeping secrets though, in fact he's not a fan of it. Especially since the Christmas time is already a reminder of him of what he had lost."

"And how long ago was it?" Tidus asked.

"Only two years ago."

The boys paused.

"So I understand why he's not in the Christmas spirit." Luna said, "But he's trying. Our friend Iris is too for his sake. But I think she's trying way too hard."

"Yeah." Tidus laughed, "Like spending 100,000 Gil on Christmas shopping using the Royal Court's credit card, and letting Noctis toss them to Terra's flame?"

Luna's eyes widened, "What?"

Tidus and Vaan froze.

The whole galactic atmosphere turned dark all of the sudden, and the guys heard a driven ominous music in high-def as the motion picture began to show. They looked at the screen. Movie was starting. But Luna had her stunned eyes fixed on them.

"We gotta go!" Tidus said. The two boys turned around only to see Aya in front of them, her gun clutched to her hand.

"Gaah!" the boys gasped.

Aya gave them a devilish smirk, "Allow me to clean up this mess out of your sight, Your Majesty!"

 **xXx**

Back at the food court, Squall and Cloud were slouching at a table. Cloud was wiggling his leg, as if with impatience.

"Hey guys!" Tifa called out. The boys turned to see the girls coming in and sat around them.

"What? No bags?" Squall noticed the girls had no bags with them.

"No." Penelo said, "Iris maxed out the credit card."

"I'm in big trouble." Iris whimpered.

"She's in big trouble." Terra B. repeated. Iris glared at her, "Not helping."

"So all we got is this tiny shopping bag." Tifa placed the bag on the table. The bag looked like a bag fit for a ring box.

"Damn." Squall said.

Tifa noticed Cloud was sweating a lot, "What's the matter with you? You're sweating."

"Oh ignore him. He just wants an excuse to watch that _Assassin's Creed_ movie with the—"

"OH F-YOU SQUALL!" Cloud exploded, leapt off his chair and ran off to the nearest restroom, pushing and shoving everyone out of the way.

"Or maybe he _really_ wanted to use the restroom." Tifa said before giving an evil look at Squall. The girls did too.

"What?" Squall said innocently, "he should've said something!"

Suddenly, the girls and Squall heard running footsteps until the table almost got knocked out back by two people, startling them.

"Hey what the hell?" Penelo screamed.

"We still can make Noctis happy!" cried out Vaan.

"Where's Noctis?" Tidus asked.

"Uhh, Noctis?" Penelo looked around, "He should be…"

The gang noticed Noctis walking down the mall hall and looking around.

"Right over there."

"Let's go get them!" Vaan was about to take off but then stopped, "by the way, there's this crazy girl named Aya who's trying to kill us, so…" he and Tidus took off toward Noctis.

"What?" the girls shouted, but then followed the duo. Squall went after them too.

Meanwhile, Noctis found a place to sit in the square. He pulled the chair and sat down. Next thing he knew, someone yanked the chair off him with great force and he fell flat on his butt.

"HEEY!" he yelled, "WHAT'S THE BIG—"

Tidus slammed a Santa Hat onto Noctis's head, while Vaan stuffed a candy cane onto his mouth.

"We're going on a trip!" Vaan said.

"A trip?" everyone said together.

"To Mt. Crystallis!" Tidus replied.

He almost lit up at the word. "Mt. Crystallis?"

"And watch the Winter Fantasy Finals!" Tidus went on, "I heard they'll be serving hot ice cream? No really. HOT ice cream."

"Sounds delicious!" Terra B. cheered.

"I agree." Penelo grinned.

Noctis was this close to break a smile, but then he closed up. "Yeah, I'll pass…" he muttered, "I'm not in the—"

"Hey!" Tidus interrupted Noctis, "Would your dad be happy with you that you're still grieving? No. He'll want you to move on."

"So get a grip, man!" Vaan said, "We're going. Come on, everyone!" And they were off, dragging the reluctant Noctis with them.

 **xXx**

Edenhall Royal Archives Library; where Ventus and the Mysidian twins Palom and Porom were waiting, anxiously, for the arrival of the jolly father of Christmas, Santa Claus. Note: anxiously, as Ven being the one who was anxious, shaking his leg uncontrollably and staring gruesomely at the clock.

"Man. It's been HOURS!" he mumbled, "How long has it been since we've been waiting here?"

"10 minutes." Palom said.

More silence ensues. Ven got more and more anxious, and the twins could see it.

"You sure you don't wanna give up and bet for the same thing next year?" Porom said calmly.

"Scoff!" Ven scoffed, "In your dreams, kids! Santa's gonna be here, whether you like it or not. You know what; I gotta go to the bathroom. I'll be right back." Ven got up his seat and started for the exit.

"You were there like 20 minutes ago." Suspicious Palom caused Ven to freeze up.

"S…so?" Ven said, "Gotta bladder problem… it's personal."

"Okay, fine." Porom said, "Just makin' sure that you're not gonna go outside and use your Keyblade to transform yourself into Santa Claus."

Ven suddenly burst out laughing, "HAA! HAA! HAA! Ohh, please… now why would I even do that?"

"To fool us." Palom replied.

"Now you guys are really smart children. But that…ahem… doesn't… mean that…you're …gonna see… no…ahem… difference, y'know… I mean…phew…"

Ven continued for the exit again.

"You're not gonna go ask Terra or Aqua to transform _themselves_ into Santa Claus and have one to them being the trusty Elf companion right?" Palom asked again.

"…Whaaaat? Noooo… and if I ever was to find Terra and Aqua, it'll be outside that chilly snowy weather, where they are now, doing some caroling! And I'm not into caroling!"

"Terra isn't into caroling either."

"Look, every person is different, a'ight?" Ven turned around and quickly went for the exit again.

"Ohh-kay. At least you didn't dress up the Chocobo with a Reindeer costume, and briefly taught him how to fly." Porom added.

Silence.

"WHO'RE YOU TO JUDGE? NOW LEMME GO PEE!" Ven barked before quickly stormed out of the library and slammed the door shut.

Ven huffed, as if he just escaped a raging canine, "I have got to find a way to outsmart those kids." He said, "I don't wanna lose my Wayfarer's Charm."

"Yo, excuse me, kid."

Ven turned his attention toward four young guys, all cozy in their fancy winter coats. They looked like a celebrity group.

"We're kinda lost." a blond young man said, the first in the group, said. "We're Big Time Rush."

"Yeah, I know." Ven added, "I'm kinda in a big time rush too, trying to outsmart a couple of kids. Don't wanna lose a bet..."

"Err... Actually, _we're_ Big Time Rush." the second guy, a tall handsome-looking dark haired guy introduced, "It's the name of the band."

"Oh cool." Ven said. "...never heard of you though, to be honest."

"Oh, that's because we're not from around here." the third guy, another handsome one who actually is shorter and more cheerful than the rest of the group added, "We're from L.A."

"Yeah, and we're kinda lost." the fourth guy, who is also short but appears to be smart for a good-looking fella added. He was actually carrying the map of Square Enix City, "It's our first time in the city. By the way, sorry about us barging into the building without a proper invite. Apparently, _some_ of us don't know the meaning of knocking on the door first." He glared at his three friends who grinned bashfully.

"Oh, no prob!" Ven said, "Apparently, some of _us_ residents forgot to lock the door!" he then mumbled, "...Thunder, when will you learn?" he then noticed all eyes were on him, "Sorry. Talking to myself. So, where're you trying to go?"

"Someplace called Mt. Crystallis...?" the second guy said.

"We got a gig for that Winter Fantasy Finals going on there." the first guy pointed out.

"It's gonna be a blast!" the third guy exclaimed, "You should come."

"Sweet, but I can't. I got my own problem to deal with." Ven said, "But I can point you to the right direction: once you leave this building, turn down to Chocobo Avenue, three blocks from here. Go straight and turn right after three more blocks to Main Street. You'll catch the skyferry there and it'll take you straight to Mt. Crystallis after 5 stops. Remember. 5 stops! Any more stops and it might take you to Mt. Palamecia. You do NOT wanna go there."

"Got it!" the four guys answered together.

"By the way, I'm Kendall. And these are my buds James, Carlos and Logan." Kendall introduced the group, "If you need anything at all, just holler."

"Great!" Ven grinned, "I'm Ventus! People call me Ven for short!"

"Well then Ven. It was very nice to meet you!" Logan said.

"Thank you very much for the directions!" James added.

"And good luck with your situation!" Carlos finished.

"Same here! Happy to help! Thanks!" Ven said.

And off the guys went. But then Ven's grin vanished as he was thinking, "...I'll try to rely on four popstars to disguise themselves as Santa Claus and his reindeers! That won't fool the twins! Ughh... Why did I make this stupid bet?"

 **xXx**

Fifteen minutes before the main event felt like forever back at Mt. Crystallis, after Sora used his Stopgra Time Magic on the whole place to give himself and Kairi some time to practice on the ice, whilst the song ' _What Christmas means to Me' by Hansen,_ played in the background.

Kairi nudged Sora near the ice rink. As soon as he made contact with the ice, he freaked out and left. Kairi gave him another chance and nudged him near the ice rink. This time, she didn't let go of it until they both entered the rink. She finally let him go and after almost losing his balance a few times, Sora ultimately fell flat on his face. Kairi, once again, gave him another chance. After few more nudging, Sora was now getting comfortable on the ice but when he heard a crack from nearby, he freaked out and ran onto Kairi. Both kids fell on their butts. The crack they heard from nearby was only a tree which was being sawed off by Snow. Snow glanced over at the kids, and he grinned before taking off with the tree. Sora and Kairi looked at each other, puzzled.

After few more slip-ups, butt-fallings and whatnot, Sora finally stood on the ice the longest and was able to skate. The two kids together skated on the ice and moved in rhythm to the music. Kairi, feeling sure to win the competition, jumped of joy and ran to hug Sora. Sora hugged back, all fluttered. Kairi tried to let go but Sora was still gripping on her tightly.

"SORA!"

He quickly let go, "Sorry…" he grinned, scratching his head.

Finally the competition resumed on the ice rink; the cheering crowd got twice its size than before, all anticipating the skating match-up of the year.

"And welcome back to our Annual Winter Fantasy Skating Competition!" the co-host Ifrit cheered, "We're down to our awesome pairs of skaters ready to whisk us away!"

"Literally!" Shiva joked.

"And by popular votes, you will vote for your champion, and their chances at winning gifts and unlimited ice cream!"

Aqua was at the avenue section of Mt. Crystallis, not far from the Winter Fantasy ice rink, when she ran into Terra. "Terra?" she exclaimed.

Terra was all covered in mistletoes twig; his hair all caught up in their branches and messed up. His face was the hilarious one as it was all covered in lip marks.

"Where… is… Snow…?" he breathed hoarsely as he tried to speak.

"You're all covered in mistletoe! What happened?"

"That mop head Snow did this! Apparently he found some mistletoe tree nearby and did THIS!" Terra suddenly felt uncomfortable around Aqua, "…why are you staring at me like that?"

"What? Oh!" she quickly snapped out of it, wiping a drool off her lip, "N-Nothing. It's just that…" her eyes stared again, "…you're all covered in mistletoe…"

Aqua…" Terra started backing away, "Stay away from me, man! I'm warning you!"

Aqua approached Terra, still drooling and not listening anymore. Terra turned around to flee but then he saw a huge crowd of girls facing him and giggling.

"MISTLETOE!" they squealed.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

The crowd of girls jumped on Terra and started fighting for their rights.

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY MAN!" Aqua pulled out her Keyblade and jumped on the girls.

Back at the Winter Fantasy competition,

Sora and Kairi were both elegantly dressed. Sora wore a shiny white puffy shirt and ivory pants. His hair was well-combed from the front. Kairi was in an ivory skating dress with a white-ruffled skirt reaching her knees. Her white elegant gloves reached her elbows. Kairi's hair was styled in a messy bun. Standing outside the rink were Reynn, Lann, Thunder, and Riku. Riku was back in his normal clothing, in addition to the crutches he was standing on. The four friends were mesmerized by Kairi and Sora's beauty, especially Kairi's.

"Wow, Kairi! You look…stunning," Riku complimented.

"Riku! You're back!" Kairi was happy to see her friend again. But Sora was not all enthusiastic, "But how…"

"Doctor put a Cura Spell on me." Riku explained, "All that's left for me to heal is my leg."

"Oh." Kairi suddenly blushed. Sora frowned. Riku went on, still mesmerized by Kairi's beauty, "I mean…you got fashion! You're sure to win this! You…are…fabulous!"

"Gee, thanks." Kairi giggled, blushing.

"You are…" Riku briefly paused. He just couldn't stop staring, "Gosh! I don't know what to say—!"

"Then don't!" Sora interrupted.

"Sora? What's wrong with you?" Reynn asked, "Riku was just being polite. Kairi IS beautiful."

Lann and Thunder agreed, randomly saying, "Totally." or "No kidding."

"So what if she is?" Sora snapped before facing Riku again, "You don't have to woo her."

Everyone got taken by surprise to Sora's rudeness. Kairi bumped his shoulder, "Sora!" she snapped, "Be nice! He's just being supportive."

"It's okay, Kairi." Riku said before approaching Sora, unsteadily on his crutches, "Now Keyblade boy," he began, "from your tone of voice, it seems as if you were so jealous of my hanging out with Kairi lately that you were planning to see me fall and out of this competition. So you devised this sneaky plan, which turned out so successful by the way, to get me into this mess, hence the crutches, so that you can swoop in here and take my place. Denyin'?"

"Well then maybe I did all that! Happy?"

Everyone gasped in horror to Sora's words. Sora quickly realized what he had said and put his hands on his lips. Kairi glared at her best friend cruelly. Riku did not say anything.

"Oh no you di' n't!" Lann squealed in sing-song like.

Thunder let out a quick laugh then said cockily, "Yeah, he did."

Sora realized what he just said. He looked around at all disappointed eyes on him, before facing the one pair of eyes he hoped he did not see once his secret got blown: Kairi's. She was in the verge of being angry.

"Sora." She began coolly, "Did you actually do this to Riku?" she pointed at Riku's crutches and sprained ankle.

Sora was mute for a second. Kairi asked again, voice raised, "SORA?"

There was this awkward silence again. Sora grinned nervously, "Well…"

Kairi's jaws dropped.

"Oooh. Here comes the Wrath of Kairi." Thunder joked and Lann and Riku choked back laughter; Reynn almost laughed too but then she angrily elbowed Thunder in the chest to show that it wasn't funny.

"Peppers Puffs Ice Cream for everybody?" Lea rejoined the gang, offering his ice creams on small sticks. Kairi angrily grabbed an ice cream and went into the ice rink as Shiva and Ifrit announced their names, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE GOT OURSELVES A NEW REPLACEMENT DUO! GIVE IT UP FOR KAIRI AND HER NEW PARTNER SORA!"

"Kairi!" Sora tried calling out to her, but she was already far ahead. He angrily faced Riku, "See what you did!"

"Me?" Riku said, "You're the one who sabotaged the competition. Helloooo?" He pointed at himself in crutches.

"What's going on?" Lea asked, unaware of what has been happening.

The crowd still stared at Kairi, anxiously awaiting Sora to enter the rink. Sora stared back at Kairi, then at the ice rink. His fear of the ice came back anew.

"UH-OH! LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE NEED A LITTLE PUSH." Ifrit grinned.

"Ifrit, don't!" Shiva warned, but it was too late. Ifrit blew a Firaga Spell out of his mouth right to Sora's butt. A burst of flame explodes Sora's behind and Sora ran screaming in pain onto the ice rink. The crowd laughed at that comedic display. Sora quickly put out the fire and turned angrily turned to Ifrit.

"HEEYY!" Sora angrily shook his hand at Ifrit then faced Kairi, who was staring back at him with a mean look on her face. He grinned nervously. "Oh… heey…!"

The crowd cheering intensified as Kairi approached Sora, and instead of helping him up slowly on the ice, grabbed his hand and forced him up. Sora quickly lost control and fell on Kairi's shoulder. Kairi pushed him up, "This is no time to be sleeping! Just win this thing, you cheatin'—!"

The music suddenly played. ' _Beautiful Christmas'_ by Big Time Rush. A live performance!

James - _Put down video games, pick up some candy canes, and hang your wreath on your door._

Kendall – _Hey! Give back to those in need; bring peace and harmony, cuz that's what Christmas is for._

Kairi twirled Sora in place before joining hands with him. Sora appeared dizzy and freaked out.

"Oh my gosh, Kairi! Where did you learn such vulgar word? That's hurtful what you said to me!" Sora exclaimed.

"Really? Well did you ever thought about how hurtful you would've damaged Riku's physical and emotional talent before you tripped him?" Kairi angrily said.

The duo danced around on the ice, with Kairi leading Sora in an almost speedy and violent manner.

Logan – _And this Christmas is Christmas, we'll celebrate a wonderful year!_

Carlos – _Ohh this Christmas is Christmas, we'll decorate the halls with love and cheer!_

Kairi twirled Sora in place as the music kept going, then tripped him and quickly grabbed his feet. Sora screamed in panic.

"HEY!" Sora yelped, "In my defense, I didn't trip him! He slipped!"

Sora then twirled Kairi in place. Kairi bowed toward the icy ground, her angry eyes still fixing on Sora, "No, YOU didn't trip him. A CHOCOBO DID!"

"So it's the Chocobo's fault! NOT MINE!"

Kairi swooped behind Sora and the duo skated back and forth in rhythm. Kairi had her arms around Sora's neck, chocking him, "But it was the Chocobo who got that ice cream from you, Mr. First Customer!"

Sora gasped, "HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?"

"You didn't think I'd noticed you talking to Lea earlier? Or should I say scheming?"

Sora freaked out.

"Ohh! Here's an idea!" Kairi yelled, "How about I shove that deathly ice cream down your throat and see how betrayal really FEELS!"

"NOOOOO!"

Big Time Rush – _We can make a beautiful Christmas!_

Kairi shoved the ice cream down Sora's throat. The whole crowd got on their feet as Kairi released Sora and skated off the stage. Sora who was skating solo, freaked out all over the ice rink, the ice cream melting in his tongue. "HOT ICE CREAM! HOT ICE CREAM! HAAWT!"

He spewed the ice cream from great distance. The ice cream went straight into Ifrit's face.

"AAHHWW!" Ifrit screamed, "I'M BLIIIND!"

Shiva tried to calm Ifrit down but the two Espers were panicking. The crowd, instead of watching a performance, felt like watching a comedy and they were laughing at it. Among the laughing audience were the mall gang, with the still gloomy Noctis. The guys were laughing uproariously.

"OHH MY GOSH! Did you see that guy?" Tidus howled in laughter, "He was like I'M BLIND! I'M BLIND OF ICE CREAM!"

The guys laughed so hard, it became contagious to Noctis. Noctis formed a smirk, then quickly started giggling.

"Hey, you're laughing!" Iris exclaimed, "It's a Christmas Miracle!"

"Ha! Ha… I guess… Ha! Ha!" Noctis finally let out a wholehearted laugh and everyone laughed along.

"Girl, what happened? You just forfeited!" Thunder asked Kairi who rudely ignored him and her friends and passed right by. She was gone before they knew it. The friends continued to passively lick the ice cream Lea has provided them.

"Mmm… good ice cream." Riku complimented.

"Is it?" Lea smiled, "It's my all-time creations: Pepper Puffs ice cream." He revealed, "I just served the whole crowd! Even Big Time Rush!"

 _Speeww!_ Thunder, Lann, and Reynn spewed the ice cream on the ground. "WHAAAT?" they screamed.

Thunder slapped the ice cream from Riku's hand. Riku looked surprised. Lea looked offended.

"There you are; you the-attempted murderer!" Tama finally cornered Lea.

"HEY!" Lea got more offended. He then faced everyone, "What's with all of you? I worked so hard on these!"

"Dude, you worked hard in putting too much of THAT FLAMING PEPPERS on every ice cream in the world!" Lann showed Lea the bottle.

"What?" Lea took the bottle and examined it. "Dude! Why would I do that? I didn't put too much Flaming Peppers on every ice cream in the world! Listen!"

The heroes listened. Instead of hearing agonizing screams and throbbing pains, they heard collective lickings and moans of pleasure. The crowd loved the ice cream! Even Big Time Rush!

Riku, Thunder, Lann, Reynn, and Tama all turned to face Lea again, "But… how?" Reynn mumbled.

"But what were those cups of red substances you put on those ice creams?" Zack asked.

"My secret weapon: Jelly toppings!" Lea showed his cherry topping bottle to the gang. The bottle was very similar to the flaming peppers one, but it was squeezable and there was no skull-and-crossbones picture on it; just the picture of a winking Lea holding on a bowlful of jelly.

"But… what was the flaming peppers for?" Isa asked.

"It was there for a little kick on the ice cream." Lea explained, "Just one _teensy_ drop, and it's a flavor spectacular." Lea laughed, "Seriously guys, you think I was out to kill people? No, I'm out to betray them. Come on, get real." He walked away, leaving everyone speechless.

Sora was all alone on the ice rink. He felt nothing. No swelling up. No flames in his mouth. Nothing. Even better the ice cream didn't kill him. He looked around. The crowd stared back at him. The music ended.

Shiva finally wiped the ice cream off Ifrit's face and laughed at his traumatized friend, "Ifrit, it was just an ice cream. Not a bomb. Sheesh."

Ifrit grumbled. The two hosts then noticed the silence in the crowd and the rink; then looked at each other.

"…Uhh, what happened?" Shiva muttered.

A Moogle flew over to the two hosts and whispered to their ears.

"Oh! Well, that was unexpected…" Ifrit muttered.

"With Kairi out of the competition, it looks like this team is disqualified!" Shiva said, "Sorry for the whole distraction there folks!"

"And so we have a winner! Our still-reigning Champion: Balthier and Fran, the Skypirates of Ice."

A roar of applaud sounded from the crowd. Balthier and Fran entered the rink to greet their fans. Balthier pushed Sora out of the way to get some camera action, "Sorry kids. Better luck next time." he gloated.

"There's always next year… if you're still here of course." Fran gloated also and the duo walked away.

 **xXx Next Chapter xXx**


	3. Part 3 of 3

**Disclaimer: All the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series belong to Square-Enix. The characters** **Lann, Reynn, Tama, and** ** **Aya Brea** belong to Square Enix also, and the original character, Johnny Thunder, belongs to me and appears in **_**Kingdom Hearts III Online HD.**_

 **-** _SquareEnix City_ **-  
Adventures on Christmas Day**

 **-** _Part 3 of 3_ **-**

xXx

- _And so it was that on Christmas Day, everyone from around the world took a gathering._

 _In peace and harmony, do they celebrate a wonderful year with a splendid feast._

xXx

Edenhall Dining Room,

Sitting in the middle of the dining room was a table… no, a very large table fit for at least 50 people. It was set and filled with all sorts of delicious Christmas food waited to be devoured by its hungry guests:

Stuffed roasted turkey surrounded in vegetables, pickles, peppers, and delicious French bread cut in croutons. Next to the roast turkey, on both its sides, were a honeysuckle glazed ham and a large lemon lobster. Other varieties at that table surrounding the turkey, ham and lobster, featured mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, hot spicy fried rice, noodles, macaroni salads, stuffed ducks and chickens, and clams. Also included were mini cherry cheesecakes, Yule logs, apple pies, cherry pies and carrot cakes. For drinks there were sizzling apple ciders, sparkling FFXIII elixirs, and everyone's favorite holiday drink: eggnog.

Right beside the big table there was a small table, where there were Christmas tea bags, some rich chocolate powder and marshmallows and cinnamon waiting to be prepared, and a small glass bowl of holiday-shaped sugar cookies and shortbreads.

Serah was turning on the candles in the middle of the big table besides the turkey and ham, before the double doors swung open. In came Lightning.

"Oh, Lightning! Merry Christmas!" Serah greeted her sister, "You're just in time for our annual Christmas feast."

Lightning stared out the window where the morning cloudy sky was, then back at the table, then back at Serah.

"Yeah, I know what you were gonna say? Isn't it too early to eat this big food now 'cuz it's 9 in the morn?"

"No I was wondering where Iris was." Lightning replied, "She's always here to serve her family Christmas cocoa recipe."

"All the ingredients are on that table." Serah showed Lightning the small table. "So, how was your trip?"

Before Lightning could respond, Serah gasped, "OH! Wait a minute, it's Christmas Day, remember? It's time for you to open your millions of gifts!"

"…yeah… about that…"

The double doors busted open, and in came Snow and Terra.

"Oh my." Serah gasped at what she saw. Lightning appeared not amused. Snow was covered in a muddy, liquidy stench, and Terra's lips appeared fat and bloody red, and his face was covered in red pimples.

"Lightning!" the boys yelled.

"You saw everything right?" Terra exclaimed.

"Yes." Lightning replied, "I see you got exposed by some urgently dangerous allergy," she then faced Snow, "and you got covered in filth from the toilet."

"So who won?" Snow yelled.

" _I_ won of course." Terra argued.

"No, _I_ won!" Snow argued.

"So where are our presents?" the boys yelled again.

"…I gave them all away." Lightning disclosed.

"WHAT?" all three characters exclaimed.

"…to the children down at the city's orphanage."

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" Snow yelped as Terra shook his head with disappointment.

Lightning raised a questionable eyebrow, forcing Snow to back down.

"…says the little stupid mind in my head." He gulped.

"Y'know, Christmas isn't about getting whatever you want," Lightning explained herself, "It's about giving from the heart. While you two were fighting over your rights to get gifts for YOURSELF, and not just any gifts, _my_ gifts, I decided to do the descent thing."

"And that was to give them away?" Serah asked.

"75% of them." She confirmed.

"Aw, how nice of you!"

"So," Terra curiously asked. "What happened to the remaining 25%?"

A squeal of joy echoed throughout the hall, catching all attention. The doors busted open and in came Kairi, Sora, Riku, Lea, Lann, Reynn, and Tama all holding on to Lightning's gifts, still unopened. Lea ran toward Lightning to give her a big hug, "Oh Lightning! How can I ever thank you, my love? All these presents for us?"

"You gave them away to _those_ kids?" Snow exclaimed.

"Hey!" Lea shouted, "I'm not a kid y'know? Get it memorized!"

"Then why do you hang out with them?" Snow said.

Lea was about the counter but then his jaws remain ajar.

"Ooh, hurtfuuul." Lann gasped.

"It's for their effort at the Winter Fantasy, Snow." Lightning pointed out.

"Thank you Lightning." Kairi said to her, "That is so sweet of you to do such thing like that."

"Wow," Serah says with awe, "You were right, Lightning; when you said I'd be surprised!"

"Yeah." Sora said, grinning, "And if you hadn't received those gifts in the first place, and I made us lose…"

"…you would've been a goner." Riku finished for him.

"Look! Stop putting blames on my head alright?" Sora snapped.

"Look, we made some effort too y'know?" Snow whined, "Pranking? Don't we deserve a lil' something too?"

"Let it go dude." Terra said to Snow, but Lightning sighed, changing her mind, "All right, only because I'm in the giving mood, you both deserve a gift." She said, "But can you at _least_ go change? Your appearance is making the food look bad!"

The KH gang shuddered at Snow and Terra's appearances. Both guys rushed out the dining room to go change when Ven who just entered the room saw them.

"Oh my—!" he gasped, "Terra, Snow! What happened to you two?"

"Shut up!" both men yelped before storming out. Everyone greeted Ven, "Merry Christmas!" who gloomily greeted back. "…hey."

"Wow, Ven!" Lann said, "Some Christmas spirit you have this morning. Didn't you get a gift from under the tree?"

Ven noticed Lann with his gift, "Ha-ha… very funny." He said not amused at his joke, "I lost a bet, okay?"

"Ah yes, I heard! The Santa Claus bet." Reynn said, reminiscing, "Both Lann and Tama made that bet last year."

"Yes!" Tama laughed at the memory, "And I had to make him the-give up his little black dress."

Reynn laughed.

"It's a TRENCHCOAT!" Lann argued, still ashamed of losing that bet, "And I KNOW Santa Claus still exists no matter what people thinks!"

"Santa Claus?" Sora said, "Of course he exists! He lives in Christmas Town. Donald, Goofy and I saw him. Heck, we even took a selfie!" Sora summoned his Keyblade and pointed above to display an holographic selfie of the trio with Santa and Jack Skellington.

"WHAT?" Ven screamed, "I can't believe this!" he then sighed, "Well, at least you didn't give up _your_ Wayfarer's Charm."

Right on cue, the Mysidian twins came into the dining room, gloating and waving Ven's Wayfarer's Charm around, "Whooehhee!"

"Gather round everyone!" Serah called on everyone currently in the dining room: there was herself, Lightning, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Reynn, Lann, Tama, Ventus, Lea, Palom and Porom. Sazh just came in and so did Terra and Snow in their new clothes.

"Well, if it isn't the Christmas pranksters!" Sazh greeted Terra and Snow, "So who won?"

"We both did." Terra said before smiling at Snow.

"What?" Sazh cocked his head on one side. "We did?" Snow looked back at Terra.

"Yeah. We should do this again sometimes. You're a worthy opponent in this business."

"Hey, same here, pal." Snow playfully punched Terra on the shoulder, "Now I wonder how good you are on the _battlefield_."

"Same time tomorrow? Training hall?"

"You're on pal!"

Johnny Thunder and Aqua entered the dining room next.

"Oh sweet! Food!" Thunder ran to get to his seat also.

"Thunder, no!" Serah called out to him, "You can't eat just yet! Not until everyone is here."

"Well, who's missing?" Thunder asked.

"The hostess, Iris." Lightning replied, "She texted me saying that she was bringing her 'boyfriend' Noctis and a couple of her friends from the city."

"How about you guys help yourselves with some sugar cookies and shortbreads while we wait?" Serah offered everyone the snacks and they all dig in.

"Oh well," Thunder said, "I learned how to be patient when it comes to waiting for food. Especially since the incident." He shuddered at a replay of the flaming peppers scare he had. Ven, Lann, and Tama laughed.

"What incident?" Aqua curiously asked as everyone began taking their seats around the table.

"Well…" Ven was about to tell the story when Thunder yelped for him to shut up "Don't tell it! It's not funny!"

"Come on! I wanna tell the story!" Ven laughed.

"How about I tell the story?" Lann exclaimed, "So there the bottle was, sitting at the table…"

"NO!" Thunder yelled again as everyone laughed and teased at his panic.

Aqua turned to Ven, "Hey, Ven. Sorry to hear that you lost the bet. But I got something that'll cheer you up."

Aqua gave Ven a small silver gift box, "Merry Christmas."

"Aw, thanks Aqua," Ven gladly took the box and started opening it, "but I dunno if this is gonna make me feel…" he stopped to stare at what's inside the box. His eyes went wide, "…better! My Wayfarer's Charm!" he gasped.

He picked up the Charm, stunned to see it back onto his hand, "B-but how…?"

Aqua pointed him the twins. Ven turned to face them.

"You may have lost the bet, Sir Ventus…" Porom said, "…but we figured that this Charm is way more precious to you than any other things you possess."

"And I agree." Aqua replied.

"I never agreed to this." Palom mumbled to himself. Porom elbowed him to keep it down. She then added, "So we didn't feel like taking it away from you."

Ven smiled and hugged the twins, "Thanks guys." He said, "But I didn't lose the bet."

The twins cocked their heads on one side, "Huh?"

Aqua grabbed Ven and put her hand over his mouth, "How about we just keep the kids happy? Just for today huh?"

Ven pulled away and turned to Aqua. He smiled promptly, "All right. Just for today. But on December 26th, I'm bringing Sora in and CRUNCH goes their dreams."

Aqua giggled.

"Anyway," He then hugged Aqua, "Thank you Aqua for the awesome surprise. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas." Aqua said to Ven before facing Terra, "Oh, and Terra. Sorry about the whole… mistletoe incident from last night."

"Mistletoe incident?" Ven beamed curiously.

"None of your business Ven." Terra quickly snapped and looked away, blushing. Ven and Aqua laughed.

The door opened again, catching everyone's attention. Finally came in Iris and her friends: Tifa, Tidus, Cloud, Squall, Terra Branford, Vaan, and Penelo. Also entering were Mog and the Moogles, and Chocobo.

"It's about time you show up!" Snow called out.

"Sorry everyone!" Iris said, "We were stuck in traffic! But guess what? I brought guests!"

As soon as she said it, Noctis and Lunafreya made their appearance. Everyone immediately went to them and they introduced themselves.

"You're King Noctis and Queen Lunafreya!" Sora said. "So great to see you!"

"Pleasure's all mine." Luna said with a smile.

"Likewise." Noctis added.

Everyone gathered around the table.

"So what can we call you?" Reynn asked, "Your Majesty? King Noctis? Queen Luna? Your Highness? Sir? Ma'am—"

The couple laughed, "Just by our names is fine." Luna said. "We're all friends here."

"And family combined." Noctis added.

"Hey, I know you!" Cloud glared menacingly at Snow, "You're the one who gave that pepper to Terra!"

"Terra huh?" Terra said, smiling at Terra Branford. She smiled back, "Yeah, that's my name."

"That's my name too!" Terra replied.

"No way!"

"Hey sorry about what happened to you." He said, before explaining the situation to the new guests, "Snow and I here were having a little pranking competition and things got out of control in his favor."

"HEY!" Snow snapped.

"Ohh…" The guests all nodded, understandably.

"But still it's no excuse to prank the wrong person." Squall scolded.

"But who knew that Terra was like a common name for both boys and girls? Nobody!" Vaan said chuckling and everyone laughed along. He then faced Terra B., "Girl you should really change your name to like…Tina."

Everyone agreed.

"Everyone gather! Everyone gather!" Serah called on everyone to the table, "It's time to eat!"

"Oh! But first!" Iris then added, before heading to the small table with the chocolate and tea and such, "Anyone wants some Christmas cocoa?"

Everyone replied gleefully. "FINALLY!" Thunder cheered, "I'll get the teacups!" Sazh proposed. "I'll get the sugar!" Kairi volunteered.

As everyone got themselves their hot refreshments and began going for the foods, they failed to notice Kendall, James, Carlos and Logan of _Big Time Rush_ entering the dining room, along with Shiva and Ifrit.

"Wow! Looks like we got ourselves a full house!" Ifrit said with his phony host accent.

"Stop it." Shiva said to her friends, "We're not doing that anymore."

Everyone saw the guest stars and greeted them to the table, "HEY! Merry Christmas!"

"Wait! Who let the door open again?" Iris asked.

"Who else?" Terra said before everyone faced Thunder, who coyly slump his shoulders, "Thunder!" they said.

"What? I forgot!"

"You guys don't mind if we join?" the Big Time Rush guys asked together.

"Hello? It's Christmas!" Serah said with a smile, "Everyone's invited!"

And so the guest characters took their seats and joined in the gala.

The Moogle mailman from earlier peeked in to the dining room and shouted, "Special delivery for Sora, Riku and Kairi!" catching everyone's attention again.

"Now who could that be?" Riku wondered.

"Bring them in!" the Moogle shouted and a bunch of Moogles came barging in with Chocobos, carrying heavy frozen boxes of assorted ice cream products with the Mickey logo labeled on them. Sora, Riku and Kairi stood up, shocked to see what was being delivered to them.

"Assorted Ice cream from Huey's Duck's Ice Cream Shop?" they exclaimed.

"But how?" Sora yelped.

Balthier and Fran entered the dining room right on cue. "How about we give you a straight answer?" Balthier replied, "It's Christmas."

"And we wanted to do something nice." Fran added, "So _you_ get the ice cream supplies instead."

"But we still are keeping the gifts." Balthier said.

"Fair enough!" Riku said.

"Thank you guys." Kairi said to the two sky pirates.

"But we'll do that on one condition…" Balthier said, but before he could finish he saw Vaan and Penelo, "Well, hey! If it isn't my two little tykes!"

"Balthier and Fran!" Vaan greeted back, "Long time no see!"

"Come seat! Come seat!" Penelo offered them a seat and the two skypirates quickly joined the table, leaving Sora, Riku, and Kairi hanging.

"Well, I guess we'll never get to hear that condition." Sora said.

"Who cares?" Lea exclaimed, licking his lips at the ice creams being delivered, "We got ice cream galore here! Let's give them away!" he proposed and everyone cheered in agreement.

"Oooh! That reminds me! How about I make more of my Peppers Puffs Ice Cream?" he then asked.

"NOOO!" everyone yelled. Lea sank back to his seat.

"Thanks for the gesture but we can the-survive without it." Tama said to her friend, reassuring him.

Everyone served themselves some sparkling ciders. Time for toast. Iris stood up and tapped on her glass, catching attention.

"Everyone! Everyone! I would like to propose a toast…" she said before facing Noctis, "…that Noctis will propose a toast on this lovely Christmas Day!"

Noctis stared back at Iris who encouraged him on him feet, "come on." Before he knew it, everyone began chanting for Noctis to stand up to make to toast. He turned to Lunafreya who nodded with an encouraging smile. The nervous young king finally stood up and raised his glass.

"…I was not prepared for this." He mumbled, "Okay, so when I first came in to Square Enix City, I was expecting a really festive town full of cheers and brimming with joy. Well, I got that." He then paused, "Except only, I was not in the spirit."

The table was silent.

"See just this past two years, I lost someone dear to me, and so did my lovely wife. But I am thankful that I found friends who made me realize that life goes on and I still must grab it by its horns. That means celebrating this moment that was given to us, and make the most of it."

Everyone at the table smiled.

"And so I want everyone to remember this day, Christmas Day, as not just a special day for gathering with families and friends and exchange gifts and such, but as a day to remember on what's more important: life. Give thanks to the life that we've been given, to the dreams that we're fulfilling, to the challenges that we face every day at the fullest… in health, prosperity, joy, and peace; and in spanning fantasy, reality, and new beginnings. So let's give thanks to our Lord and His gift to all of us: the Gift of Life."

Lunafreya then stood up and let out a joyful noise, "Oh come, all ye faithful…"

"Joyful and triumphant!" Everyone at the table joined in as they stood up one by one, "Oh come ye, oh come ye, to Bethlehem!"

"Come and behold him!"

"Born the King of Angels!"

"Oh come let us Adore Him…" Kairi soloed.

"Oh come let us Adore Him…" Riku soloed.

"Oh come let us Adore Him!" Everyone joined in again. "CHRIIIIIST THE LORD!"

Everyone cheered and applauded.

"Merry Christmas, everyone!" Snow raised his glass, "And a Happy New Year! Hear! Hear!"

And everyone toasted. "Hear-Hear!"

 _xxx_

 _The joy and happiness we share with families and friends can only be a recipe for the best holiday ever. So give your gifts many, and keep your hearts full of light and a merry Christmas to all…_

 _…and to all a Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts night!_

 **xXx THE END xXx**


End file.
